Oswald v. Civil Service Commission

• Decision Date: 21 September 1950
• Docket Number: No. 31523,31523
• Citation: 406 Ill. 506,94 N.E.2d 311
• Parties: OSWALD v. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 311

94 N.E.2d 311

406 Ill. 506

OSWALD v. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION et al.

No. 31523.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 21, 1950.

Ivan A. Elliott, Attorney General (Robert J. Burdett, A. Zola Groves, and James C. Murray, all of Chicago, of counsel), for appellants.

Michael F. Ryan, of Chicago (Richard F. McPartlin, Jr., of Chicago, of counsel), for appellee.

FULTON, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of the circuit court of Cook County reversing the findings and decision of the Civil Service Commission, which, in turn, had discharged the appellee from his position as a steamfitter in the classified service of the Department of Public Welfare at the Dixon State Hospital.

The proceedings were based upon the provisions of the Administrative Review Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1949, chap. 110, pars. 264 to 279, incl.), and the appeal is brought to this court because the State is an interested party.

After his discharge, Oswald filed his complaint, alleging that he started to work at the Dixon State Hospital in August, 1934, and continued his employment until February, 1946, on which date he was suspended and discharged, without just cause, and that on hearing he would be able to establish that fact.

The hearing on his petition was held May 6, 1946, by the trial board appointed by the Civil Service Commission to hear the charges. At that hearing, through his attorney, petitioner filed a motion to quash the charges filed against him. The trial board denied the motion to quash and proceeded to take the testimony of witnesses.

The record and the evidence taken by the trial board disclose that appellee, John Oswald, was charged with striking or otherwise causing Stanley Locklund to fall against a vise on February 5, 1946, resulting in an injury, a cut over his left eye. Locklund was a patient or inmate of the Dixon State Hospital. Oswald was further charged with allowing Locklund to leave his supervision before ascertaining the extent of the injury, and in failing to obtain medical attention for him immediately after the injury occurred.

The facts show that Oswald was a steamfitter at the institution and that Locklund, a patient, was assigned to help him with his work. The incident took place in the basement of the power house at the hospital. There was a work bench in the basement at which Oswald, Locklund, Hollander (another steamfitter), Carr, a patient, and one Leo Signor, a patient, who did not testify, were working when the incident occurred.

On the day in question, Oswald sent Locklund to get some pipes and gave him some keys to unlock a tool box from which they were to be taken. When Locklund returned with the pipes, Oswald asked him for the keys and Locklund replied that he had given them to the steamfitter. Later he remembered that he had put them in the tool box, which became locked when the lid was closed with the keys inside. The steamfitter was compelled to break open the box in order to find the keys inside.

The foregoing facts are not in controversy. Dr. Bruce D. Hart, the psychiatrist at the hospital, testified that he saw Locklund on February 6, 1946, and made a superficial examination of his injury, which consisted of a cut over his left eye, three quarters of an inch long and closed with a stitch. He also testified as to the mental capacity of both Locklund and the witness, Robert Carr. His conclusions were that Locklund had an intelligence quotient of 84, which placed him in the dull normal group, but was not considered a mental defective; that the normal quotient is between 90 and 110. Also, that Robert Carr, the other feeble-minded witness, had an intelligence quotient in the 70's; that he was in the borderline group. It was his conclusion that both witnesses knew the difference between right and wrong, were able to observe the facts and to testify to such facts.

Locklund testified that he was helping Oswald on February 5, 1946, replacing pipes in the hospital; that there was some loud discussion over the misplacing of the keys and when Oswald found out he had caused the keys to be locked up in the tool box, Oswald started beating him up. Specifically he said Oswald hit him near the windpipe and knocked him down; that as he fell he struck the corner of a vise on the work bench and cut his left eye. He further stated that he then went upstairs, put a bandage on his eye and went to the ward. Afterwards Oswald came to the ward and took Locklund to the dispensary.

Robert Carr worked for the other steamfitter, Hollander, and on the stand related facts concerning the incident about as testified to by Locklund. Carr had been in the institution 21 years and at the Lincoln State Hospital for four years. He was 43 years old.

The version of the incident as told by Oswald was that he was talking to Locklund in a loud voice and Licklund turned to go away and slipped apparently on a pipe fitting. He testified that he was not aware that Locklund had cut his eyebrow on the vise until he was later informed by the fireman. He then went willingly to the ward and took Locklund to the dispensary. He further stated that Locklund did not fall to the floor.

Arthur Hollander, the other steamfitter, on rebuttal testified that he was around the workbench at the vise on the east side; that he heard a lot of loud talking and...