Joseph E. Curlott, and Cross-Appellants v. Alan Campbell, and Cross-Appellees

This case is brought by a group of federal employees who contest the Civil Service Commission’s interpretation of an Executive Order that reduced plaintiffs’ benefits. Both parties appeal from an interlocutory judgment that refused to hold the Commission in contempt of an earlier declaratory judgment but ordered the Commission to pay the disputed benefits until the completion of certain due process procedures. Jurisdiction is conferred on this court by 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (a)(1) (1976). For the reasons given below we affirm that part of the order that held the Commission not in contempt, reverse as to the remainder and remand for further proceedings.

I.

FACTS.

The controversy concerns a change made by the defendant and appellant Civil Ser vice Commission in the method of calculating the cost-of-living allowance (COLA) paid to federal civil employees living in Alaska. Established in 1948 by President Truman in Executive Order 10,000, codified at 5 U.S.C. § 5941 (1976), the COLA supplements the basic pay of federal employees living in designated nonforeign areas where the cost of living is substantially higher than in Washington, D.C.

Section 205(b)(2) of the Executive Order forms…