Holmes v. Reese

• Decision Date: 18 February 1936
• Docket Number: 43299.
• Citation: 265 N.W. 384,221 Iowa 52
• Parties: HOLMES v. REESE, Sioux City Manager, Iowa State Employment Service et al.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

265 N.W. 384

221 Iowa 52

HOLMES v. REESE, Sioux City Manager, Iowa State Employment Service et al.

No. 43299.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

February 18, 1936

Appeal from District Court, Woodbury County; Robert H. Munger Judge.

Holmes commenced an action for an injunction and later amended praying for a writ of certiorari, to test the right of the director of the Iowa State Employment Service to discharge him without notice and a hearing, as he was an honorably discharged soldier, who claimed the right to hold his position under the Iowa Soldiers' Preference Law (Code 1931, § 1159 et seq.). The defendants answered, denying that they had discharged the plaintiff, stating that the position he had held was abolished by law. Judgment for defendants. Plaintiff appeals. Opinion states the facts.

Affirmed.

Milchrist, Schmidt & Marshall, of Sioux City, for appellant.

Edward L. O'Connor, Atty. Gen., and Le Roy A. Rader, Asst. Atty Gen., for appellees.

MITCHELL, Justice.

J. W. Holmes was employed continuously in Sioux City since 1918 in the position of clerk of the state employment bureau, which was organized under the provisions of chapter 77, Code of Iowa 1931 (section 1542 et seq.), and amendments thereto. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the Spanish-American War, and as such is entitled to the benefits of chapter 60, Code of 1931 (section 1159 et seq.), entitled " Soldiers' Preference Law." The position which he occupied was not that of private secretary or deputy of any official or department, and he did not hold a strictly confidential relationship to the appointing official.

On May 1, 1933, Frank E. Wenig, who was then, and is now, the commissioner of labor for the state of Iowa, informed Holmes that the position he held had been abolished. Holmes thereupon commenced an action in the district court of Woodbury county, Iowa, in which he asked that Wenig be enjoined from discharging him without filing charges and granting him a hearing. Thereafter he amended his petition by praying for alternative relief by way of an injunction or the issuance of a writ of certiorari.

The defendants answered in substance that Holmes was not discharged, but that the position which he held was abolished, and that the state of Iowa by an act of the Legislature had accepted the provisions of the act passed by the 73d Congress, known as the Wagner-Peyser Law (29 U.S. C.A. § 49 et seq.), under which act a new employment service was set up.

A stipulation was then entered into between the parties that " the cause shall be tried as though a writ of certiorari had issued, and that the court shall by its judgment determine the right of the plaintiff to retain his employment in the Iowa State Employment Service."

A return was duly made and the cause submitted to the court, which held that the effect of chapter 16, Acts of the 45th General Assembly, Ex.Sess., was to abolish and terminate the position previously held by Holmes, and found for the defendants.

Being dissatisfied with the ruling of the lower court, Holmes has appealed.

There is but one single issue in this case, and that is whether or not the position which the appellant was holding was abolished.

The Soldiers' Preference Law in approximately its present form has been upon the statute books of Iowa for better than thirty years. The state of Iowa has jealously guarded the rights of an honorably discharged war veteran, not only to appointment to public employment (other than deputy or confidential relation), but has, with equal care, protected him against removal for any ground other than misconduct or incompetency, and then only after charges, notice, and hearing.

But it is conceded by the appellant that the Soldiers' Preference Law does not entitle an honorably discharged veteran to a hearing on stated charges in the event that the position which he occupies is legally abolished. Lyon v. Civil Service Commission, 203 Iowa 1203, 212 N.W. 579; Douglas v. City, 206 Iowa 144, 220 N.W. 72; Rounds v. City, 213 Iowa 52, 238 N.W. 428.

So the question we must decide is whether or not the position that Holmes held was abolished.

Some years ago, by proper enactment of the Legislature, the state of Iowa organized what was known as the state employment Bureau. It was in this department that the appellant was employed. The Seventy-Third Congress of the United...