Haywood v. American River Fire Protection Dist., C023763

• Decision Date: 20 November 1998
• Docket Number: No. C023763,C023763
• Citation: 79 Cal.Rptr.2d 749,67 Cal.App.4th 1292
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: , 63 Cal. Comp. Cases 1361, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 11,993, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 8582 Anthony HAYWOOD, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. AMERICAN RIVER FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 749

79 Cal.Rptr.2d 749

67 Cal.App.4th 1292, 63 Cal. Comp. Cases 1361,

98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 11,993,

98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 8582

Anthony HAYWOOD, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. AMERICAN RIVER FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT, Defendant and Appellant.

No. C023763.

Court of Appeal, Third District, California.

Nov. 20, 1998.

Certified for Partial Publication. ^*

Review Denied Feb. 17, 1999.

The Bleier Law Firm, Brenton A. Bleier, Sacramento, and Alan C. Campbell for Defendant and Appellant.

Jones, Clifford, McDevitt, Naekel & Johnson, Jane E. Naekel, Sacramento, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

SCOTLAND, Associate Justice.

Anthony Haywood's employment with American River Fire Protection District (the District) was terminated for cause following a series of increasingly serious disciplinary actions against him. After his discharge, he applied for disability retirement, claiming that stress from the disciplinary actions caused him to suffer a major depression, which rendered him incapable of performing his usual duties with the District.

Evidence presented at the administrative hearing on the application for disability retirement established that, by the time of the hearing, Haywood had recovered from his depression and was fully capable of performing the duties of his former job for any other fire department. Nonetheless, he claimed he was entitled to disability retirement because, if he were to return to work for the District under the current administration that he believed had treated him unfairly, he would likely suffer additional depression that would make him unable to perform his usual duties.

The District denied the application for disability retirement, adopting the administrative law judge's finding that Haywood had "failed to demonstrate by competent medical evidence that he is incapacitated physically or mentally from the performance of his duties[.]"

Haywood sought review by petition for writ of administrative mandate. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5.) The superior court held that whether Haywood was disabled had to be considered "in the context of the environment of the current or last place of employment, rather than some hypothetical environment at a new or different place of employment." The court then found Haywood was entitled to a disability retirement. It analogized his situation to that in which a physical ailment, such as asthma, would be affected by the physical environment of the employer's workplace so that the employee was unable to work there. It concluded that such an employee should be considered disabled and, by analogy, that Haywood should be considered mentally disabled from working for the District. Accordingly, the court issued a peremptory writ of mandate directing the District to set aside its administrative decision.

The District appeals, claiming the judgment must be reversed because the superior court misconstrued the disability retirement laws, the evidence does not support the court's determination that Haywood is entitled to disability retirement, and the decision "leads to an anomalous and illogical result."

In the published portion of this opinion, we conclude that Haywood is not entitled to disability retirement.

As we shall explain, there is an obvious distinction in public employment retirement laws between an employee who has become medically unable to perform his usual duties and one who has become unwilling to do so. Disability retirement laws address only the former. They are not intended to require an employer to pension-off an unwilling employee in order to maintain the standards of public service. Nor are they intended as a means by which an unwilling employee can retire early in derogation of the obligation of faithful performance of duty. In addition, while termination of an unwilling employee for cause completely severs the employer-employee relationship, disability retirement laws contemplate the potential reinstatement of that relationship if the employee recovers and no longer is disabled.

In this case, Haywood challenged his employer's authority and lost when, after a series of disciplinary actions, he was terminated for cause. The behavior which resulted in Haywood's firing--his unwillingness to faithfully perform his duties--was not caused by a physical or mental condition, and Haywood had no valid claim for disability retirement which could have been presented before he was fired.

Haywood's firing for cause constituted a complete severance of the employer-employee relationship, thus eliminating a necessary requisite for disability retirement--the potential reinstatement of his employment relationship with the District if it ultimately is determined that he no longer is disabled. Moreover, to award Haywood a disability pension would interfere with the District's authority to discipline recalcitrant employees. Such an award in effect would compel the District to pension-off an employee who has demonstrated unwillingness to faithfully perform his duties, and would reward Haywood with early retirement for his recalcitrance. In other words, granting Haywood disability retirement would override Haywood's termination for cause despite his inability to set aside the termination through the grievance process.

It follows that where, as here, an employee is fired for cause and the discharge is neither the ultimate result of a disabling medical condition nor preemptive of an otherwise valid claim for disability retirement, termination of the employment relationship renders the employee ineligible for disability retirement. ¹

Because Haywood was ineligible for disability retirement, we shall reverse the judgment with directions to the superior court to deny Haywood's petition for writ of administrative mandamus. ²

FACTS

Haywood began employment with the District as a firefighter in January 1976. He was promoted to engineer in 1981, thereby assuming, among other things, the responsibility of driving fire engines.

When the District elected to make its employees members of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS), Haywood became a "local safety member" of PERS. (Gov.Code, § 20420.)

The District has a policy of rotating personnel every three years. Pursuant to this policy, Haywood was assigned to the command of Captain Jerre Hertel at the beginning of 1992. Thereafter, Hertel received telephone calls of condolence from a number of other captains who said they had experienced problems with Haywood, primarily his attitude, while he was under their command. Hertel was told that Haywood could "do the job" if he wanted to, but he sometimes would adopt "the attitude that he'd rather do it his way" and would not follow an order without a discussion or argument. Hertel testified that, although personal peculiarities can be tolerated outside an emergency situation, when the alarm goes off there is no time to discuss or argue about how to do things; the captain's orders must be followed. The other captains also told Hertel that Haywood occasionally had failed to wear his safety equipment, which is an absolute requirement on an emergency call.

When Haywood began working for him, Hertel started keeping informal notes on incidents in which he had problems with Haywood. Hertel cited, as exemplary of Haywood's attitude, his frequent failure to stop his fire engine where Hertel directed during emergency calls. Hertel testified that crew safety is one of his first concerns on emergency calls, thus he would direct Haywood to stop in a position that would protect the crew. At times, Haywood would argue with Hertel over where the vehicle should be stopped and would slide it over to where Haywood wanted rather than follow Hertel's directions. In one incident, Hertel had been directed by the battalion chief to stop the fire engine in a particular location. Hertel told Haywood to stop there, but Haywood kept creeping the vehicle forward until, despite several orders from Hertel, he passed the location. Hertel testified there were other examples of Haywood's failure to follow directions, failure to perform his duties in an appropriate manner, or failure to wear his safety equipment as required.

By March 1992, Hertel had a list of approximately 18 incidents in which he questioned Haywood's performance. He gave the list to Battalion Chief Larkin, and a meeting was held with Larkin, Hertel, and Haywood. Five of the incidents formed the basis for formal disciplinary action, and Haywood was given a one-shift suspension.

During the following year, Haywood's conduct resulted in additional suspensions. At one point, Larkin directed that Haywood's assignment be rotated to different stations on a monthly basis so he could be evaluated by other captains.

In March 1993, Haywood was charged with willful disobedience and was demoted to firefighter. In April 1993, he was charged with willfully jeopardizing the health and safety of the public and inexcusable neglect of duty, and was terminated from employment effective April 30, 1993.

Pursuant to agreement between the District and its employees, disciplinary actions may be contested through grievance procedures with ultimate resolution through arbitration. Haywood filed grievances challenging the disciplinary actions against him, but had not succeeded in having them set aside.

On several occasions prior to termination of his employment, Haywood had visited a counselor, whose services were paid for by the District's employee assistance resources program. In December 1992, Haywood filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits, claiming his fear that a supervisor "may be watching [him] and looking for something that [he] didn't necessarily do right" had caused him to suffer psychic injury. At the request of the District or its insurance carrier, Haywood was evaluated by Dr. Platt, a board certified psychiatrist. In April 1993, he saw Dr. Lyons, a board certified psychiatrist who became Haywood's treating psychiatrist. He...