Schoemehl v. Whaley, s. 41312

• Decision Date: 22 April 1980
• Docket Number: 41335,Nos. 41312,s. 41312
• Parties: Vincent C. SCHOEMEHL, Jr., Respondent, v. Donald H. WHALEY, Clarence T. Hunter, John A. Schicker, Suzanne Hart, and Honorable James F. Conway, Mayor of the City of St. Louis, All of whom together constitute the members of the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of St. Louis, City of St. Louis, and Eugene Camp, Chief of Police of the City of St. Louis, Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 607

598 S.W.2d 607

Vincent C. SCHOEMEHL, Jr., Respondent, v. Donald H. WHALEY, Clarence T. Hunter, John A. Schicker, Suzanne Hart, and Honorable James F. Conway, Mayor of the

City of St. Louis, All of whom together constitute the

members of the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of

St. Louis, City of St. Louis, and Eugene Camp, Chief of

Police of the City of St. Louis, Appellants.

Nos. 41312, 41335.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Division Three.

April 22, 1980.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied

May 19, 1980.

Application to Transfer Denied June 10, 1980.

C. A. Mogab, John C. Livingston, St. Louis, for appellants.

E. C. Kennedy, St. Louis, for respondent.

CRIST, Judge.

Plaintiff, resident taxpayer, obtained an order enjoining the Board of Police Commissioners and the City of St. Louis, co-defendants, from paying Eugene Camp, the St. Louis Chief of Police, also a co-defendant, compensation for overtime accumulated prior to May 1, 1977. We affirm.

This case was submitted to the court below for a decision on stipulated facts. Those facts, as relevant, are summarized below. This case revolves around § 84.160(3)-(7), RSMo. Supp. 1977, which states as follows:

3. The board of police commissioners may pay additional compensation for all hours of service rendered in excess of the established regular working period, and the rate of compensation shall not exceed the regular hourly rate of pay to which each member shall normally be entitled. No credit shall be given or deductions made from payments for overtime for the purpose of retirement benefits.

4. All commissioned officers up to and including the rank of sergeant shall receive additional compensation for authorized overtime, court time and court standby time accumulated after May 1, 1977, whenever the total accumulated time exceeds forty hours, and the rate of compensation shall not exceed the regular hourly rate of pay to which each member shall normally be entitled. The accumulated forty hours shall be taken as compensatory time off at the officer's discretion with the approval of his supervisor.

5. Overtime, court time and court standby time accumulated prior to May 1, 1977, shall be compensated for on the basis of compensatory time off or at the regular hourly rate of pay, at the discretion of the board, within two years of May 1, 1977.

6. The allowance of compensation or compensatory time off for court standby time shall be computed at the rate of one-third of one hour for each hour spent on court standby time.

7. In lieu of compensatory time off or payments for overtime hours, all commissioned officers of the rank of lieutenant and above shall receive an additional eight percent of the compensation established in subsection 1, with the exception of the chief of police.

The Board of Police Commissioners, hereinafter "Board", construed subsection (5) of the above statute to mean that the Board should either pay compensation or allow compensatory time off for accumulated overtime for all police officers, including the chief of police. The Board opted to pay additional compensation for the accumulated overtime. The Board computed the amount of overtime accumulated by Chief Camp on holidays and regularly scheduled recreation days. The Board, by applying the amount of overtime accumulated by Chief Camp to his statutory salary rate in effect on April 30, 1977, determined that $39,701.90 was due Chief Camp. The City of St. Louis issued a check for that amount. Plaintiff then obtained the present injunction.

We believe the Board's construction of subsection (5) is incorrect. The legislature did not intend subsection (5) to be read apart from the rest of the statute. The construction of a statute requires a consideration of the statute as a whole. Fleming v. Moore Brothers Realty Co., 363 Mo. 305, 251 S.W.2d 8, 15 (1952). Subsection (4), immediately prior to subsection (5), expressly limits itself to affecting officers up to and including the rank of sergeant. We believe subsection (5) retains the same limitation. Subsection (6), dealing with the conversion of court standby time to...