Riley v. City of Des Moines
| Decision Date | 15 March 1927 |
| Docket Number | No. 38012.,38012. |
| Citation | 203 Iowa 1240,212 N.W. 716 |
| Parties | RILEY v. CITY OF DES MOINES ET AL. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from District Court, Polk County; W. G. Bonner, Judge.
Appeal from an order of the district court in a mandamus proceeding. Reversed.Reson S. Jones, Eskil C. Carlson, Chauncey A. Weaver, Don G. Allen, and George W. Vest, all of Des Moines, for appellants.
A. L. Steele, of Des Moines, for appellee.
Appellee was a policeman in the city of Des Moines for a number of years, commencing in 1902, and his service ending in 1922. In 1914 he was dismissed from the service by the then chief of police on charges. He appealed to the district court, where the action of the chief in dismissing him was sustained, and this judgment of the district court was affirmed on December 11, 1917, in Riley v. Crawford, 181 Iowa, 1219, 165 N. W. 345. He was again put on the police force in 1920, and on the 26th day of March, the city council of the city of Des Moines passed a resolution that Riley “be restored to his full rights and privileges under the civil service laws of the city of Des Moines, conditioned upon his payment of back pension dues and the proper adjustment of his business relationship with the civil service commission.” Nothing was ever done either by Riley or by the civil service commission to restore him to his rights under that commission. He, however, paid his pension dues until the time of his disability. On the 12th day of August, 1922, while on his beat in said city, he suffered a paralytic stroke from which he has never fully recovered. The city paid him his monthly salary of $150 for about two months succeeding this stroke. He made application to be placed upon the pension list, and on the 31st day of January, 1924, in passing on his application for retirement on pension, the trustees of the police pension fund made this order:
“After hearing the testimony and being fully advised in the premises, the board of trustees of the police pension fund of the city of Des Moines find that W. L. Riley is not entitled to be retired on pension, and his application for pension is therefore denied.”
On the 9th day of April, 1925, Riley filed his petition in the district court of Polk county, Iowa, alleging his services as a policeman, that he became physically unfit in August, 1922, and that he made application to the trustees of the pension fund to be retired on half pay, and that such trustees refused to put his name on the pay roll of the policemen's pension fund, and he asked, among other things, that an order of mandamus issue commanding the trustees to put plaintiff's name on the policemen's pension fund pay roll of the city of Des Moines, Iowa, to hereafter pay to plaintiff the sum of $75 a month out of said fund so long as plaintiff's physical disability should continue.
The city, through the trustees of the pension fund, answered this petition, admitting his appointment as a patrolman on the 16th day of October, 1902; that he continued in the employ of the city until December 10, 1914, at which time he was discharged from the police force by the chief of police; alleging his appeal from this action of the chief of police to the civil service commission, and his appeal and the writ of certiorari on said action, the ruling of the district court thereon, and the final disposition of the matter in the Supreme Court of this state, sustaining the action of the chief in so discharging Riley; that the superintendent of the department of public safety subsequently employed Riley as a policeman, and that a resolution of the city council restoring Riley to his rights was passed; sets out the requirements of the civil service law, which, among other things, requires an examination of the applicant and a certification of said examination to the city council before one can be appointed as a police officer; alleges that Riley never passed such examination, and that his name was never certified to the city council prior to the time of the adoption of the resolution above referred to; admits his application to the trustees for retirement, and pleads that the trustees of said fund refuse such application substantially as stated by the appellee, and ask that appellee's petition be dismissed. By amendment they allege that this mandamus action will not lie under the facts set forth in appellee's petition.
The cause was tried to one of the judges of the district court of Polk county, Iowa, resulting in a decree granting the prayer of appellee's petition, and adjudging that appellee was entitled to receive $75 a month from the police pension fund of said city from the time of his disability, and ordering that appellee's name be placed on the pension roll, and, if they fail to pay, that writ of mandamus issue commanding them to carry out this finding and decree.
There is no dispute that Riley served for 15 years, 9 months, and 6 days on the...
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