State ex rel. Priest v. Gunn

• Decision Date: 13 June 1959
• Docket Number: No. 47492,47492
• Citation: 326 S.W.2d 314
• Parties: STATE of Missouri ex rel. H. Sam PRIEST, President, Russell L. Dearmont, Alphonse G. Eberle and Kenneth Teasdale, as Members of, and Constituting, the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, Relators, v. Donald GUNN, President, Carl Gassel, Leo J. McLaughlin, James W. Noonan, T. H. Mayberry, John T. Curry, Archie Blaine, Raymond Leisure, Anton Niemeyer, Louis Aboussie, James E. Geisler, Albert Villa, Fred W. Haag, George J. Grellner, Joseph E. Kavanaugh, A. J. Cervantes, Thomas J. Finan, Joseph P. Roddy, Wayman F. Smith, Jr., DeWitte T. Lawson, Edgar J. Feely, A. Barney Mueller, Alfred Harris, John A. Sartorius, Anthony T. Mascazzini, Joseph B. McDonald, William C. Brady and Joseph F. Noel, as Members of, and Constituting the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; Raymond R. Tucker, John H. Poclker and Donald Gunn, as Members of, and Constituting, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; Raymond R. Tucker, as Mayor of the city of St. Louis, Missouri; John H. Poelker, as Comptroller of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; John J. Dwyer, as Treasurer of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 314

326 S.W.2d 314

STATE of Missouri ex rel. H. Sam PRIEST, President, Russell L. Dearmont, Alphonse G. Eberle and Kenneth Teasdale, as Members of, and Constituting, the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, Relators, v. Donald GUNN, President, Carl Gassel, Leo J. McLaughlin James W. Noonan, T. H. Mayberry, John T. Curry, Archie Blaine, Raymond Leisure, Anton Niemeyer, Louis Aboussie James E. Geisler, Albert Villa, Fred W. Haag, George J Grellner, Joseph E. Kavanaugh, A. J. Cervantes, Thomas J Finan, Joseph P. Roddy, Wayman F. Smith, Jr., DeWitte T. Lawson, Edgar J. Feely, A. Barney Mueller, Alfred Harris, John A. Sartorius, Anthony T. Mascazzini, Joseph B. McDonald, William C. Brady and Joseph F. Noel, as Members of, and Constituting the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; Raymond R. Tucker, John H. Poclker and Donald Gunn, as Members of, and Constituting, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; Raymond R. Tucker, as Mayor of the city of St. Louis, Missouri; John H. Poelker, as Comptroller of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; John J. Dwyer, as Treasurer of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, Respondents.

No. 47492.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

June 13, 1959.

Robert F. Schlafly, Robert J. Keefe, Keefe, Schlafly, Griesedieck & Ferrell, St. Louis, for relators.

Charles J. Dolan, Acting City Counselor, Eugene P. Freeman, Associate City Counselor, Samuel H. Liberman, Lewis, Rice, Tucker, Allen & Chubb, St. Louis, for respondents.

EAGER, Judge.

In this mandamus proceeding the members of the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of St. Louis seek to compel the City Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the Board of Aldermen, and the appropriate City officials, to approve, appropriate and pay an additional sum of $461,331.42 for the maintenance of the police department for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1959. Issues were made up from the Petition and Exhibits, the Answer and Return, and a Response to the Return. From these and a stipulation the following facts appear.

Pursuant to section 84.210 (all statutory references are to RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., unless otherwise stated) the Police Board prepared and delivered to the City on or about March 28, 1958, its estimate of the amounts necessary to meet the expenses of the department for the next fiscal year. The amount so fixed, exclusive of the amount needed for the Pension System which we may ignore, was $14,232,352.87. To this estimate were attached a 'Detailed Budget Request,' breaking the amount down into certain classifications, and a 'Work Sheet,' giving very specific details as to the personnel. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment consisted of Respondents Tucker, Poelker and Gunn; it asked the Police Board to re-examine and reduce this estimate; it was thus re-examined, but the Board determined that no reduction was possible. Thereupon, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment (which has the duty under the City Charter to recommend all appropriation bills) reduced various items in this budget request and submitted it, as reduced, in a general appropriation bill to the Board of Aldermen. An ordinance was duly enacted appropriating the reduced amounts. The total appropriation was $13,592,352.87, or a reduction of $640,000. Reductions were made as follows in allowances for: 'Commissioned Salaries' (i. e. Police Officers)--$360,000; 'General Supplies and Expenses'--$37,000; 'Light, Heat and Power'--$50,000; and 'Auto Radio & Guns'--$217,000. Other relatively minor reductions made up the remainder. The item of 'Non Commissioned Salaries' (actually salaries of civilian employees) was increased $61,000. Suitable protests were made by the Board, but the City proceeded, generally, on the basis of the reduced budget. It did, however, during the year, and particularly towards its end, transfer certain funds from one or more police accounts to others in order to prevent overdrawing one or more depleted accounts. On February 11, 1959, defendant Poelker, as Comptroller, refused to approve and so far as we are concerned the City rejected certified claims for $27,843.20 for the purchase of fourteen police cars, and for $17,228.70 for the purchase of gasoline, upon the ground that there were insufficient funds in the accounts for equipment and supplies to pay these sums. After some negotiations the City did pay in full the payroll for 'Commissioned Salaries,' or police officers, although it had originally reduced that request drastically; in so doing, the Comptroller supposedly exercised his 'emergency powers' to the extent of $71,000, amounting to an overpayment of the funds actually appropriated. The civilian salaries were paid for eleven and one-half months, but a default of $96,943.93 remained at the end of the fiscal year. This, actually, was paid on or after April 1, 1959, but was charged to the next fiscal year, so it remains as a deficit here. The Petition for Mandamus was filed on February 23, 1959. The pleadings state that the total amounts of which payments were refused to and as of the end of the fiscal year consisted of the above $96,743.93 in civilian salaries, and $364,587.49 claimed and certified as due for supplies, equipment, contractual services and miscellaneous; obviously, the total is $461,331.42.

Section 84.100 (as amended in 1957--see Cum.Supp.) provides for a maximum of 1,704 patrolmen and 35 turnkeys. Sections 84.150 and 84.160 (as also then amended) provide for the appointment of various ranking officers, sergeants, detectives, etc., and fix the salaries of these and of all patrolmen. ¹ Other significant parts of the applicable statutes are as follows: Section 84.100--'To enable said boards to perform said duties imposed upon them, they are hereby authorized and required to appoint, enroll and employ a permanent police force for the said cities which they shall equip and arm as they may judge necessary. * * *' Section 84.190--'1. The said boards shall be and they are hereby authorized to provide themselves with such office and office furniture, and such clerks and subordinates as they shall need; and to have and use a common seal. They shall divide the said cities ² into twelve police districts, and provide in each of them, if necessary, a station house or houses, with all things and equipments required for the same, and all such other accommodations as may be required for the use of the police.' Section 84.210--'1. It shall be the duty of said boards, within thirty days after sections 84.010 to 84.340 shall take effect, and annually thenceforward on the thirty-first day of March of each year to prepare, in writing, an estimate of the sum of money which will be necessary for each current fiscal year, to enable them to discharge the duties hereby imposed upon them, and to meet the expenses of the police department, and they shall forthwith certify the same to the board of common council or municipal assembly, as the case may be, of said cities, who are hereby required to set apart and appropriate the amount so certified, payable out of the revenue of said cities, after having first deducted the amount necessary to pay the interest upon the indebtedness of said cities, the amount necessary for the expenses of the city hospital and health department, the amount necessary for lighting the city, and any sum required by law to be placed to the credit of the sinking fund of said cities.'

As part of the expense of civilian personnel, the estimate of the Board included the following: '10 Matrons (1st class)' $36,000; '10 Matrons (2nd class)' $32,100; '58 Prison Guards' $214,020; $214 School Crossing Guards' $165,208. Respondents contest the propriety of the employment and the payment of all these classes of employees, as indicated later. It is necessary, therefore, to describe their duties and status briefly, referring to the stipulation of facts. We contrast the first two classes with 'turnkeys,' a statutory job classification. A turnkey's primary duty is the retention of custody of male prisoners and he keeps the keys to the cell block and cells; he wears a regulation uniform and is armed; he receives prisoners from policemen, records in a register the data on all those received and released, and keeps copies of the arrest sheets and removal orders; he provides generally for the feeding and care of the prisoners, and performs some cleaning or so-called 'housekeeping' functions within the cells. He may not receive, release, or transfer a prisoner except in the presence of a police officer; he is subject to other police assignments (an infrequent occurrence, in fact) and to the discipline provided for police officers; the statutory salary is $4,200 per year. At present all turnkeys are assigned to the 'Holdover' at Police Headquarters, and none are assigned to the district stations.

'Prison Guards' have been employed by the department since 1906; they operate under civilian working conditions and discipline, being subject to dismissal 'without cause.' The salary is $3,465 per year. They are furnished regulation uniforms, badges and pistols, but are not required to wear the uniforms or carry the arms; it is not shown whether they ordinarily do so or not. These men are licensed by the Board as 'Private Watchmen.' Their duties are 'substantially the same as that of turnkeys regarding the custody of prisoners' (quoted from the stipulation). They are all presently assigned to the district stations, but in the past some have been assigned to Headquarters. When and if they work together, a turnkey has supervisory control over a prison guard. In five district stations prison guards operate telephone switchboards located within the cell block. They are sometimes used as substitute chauffeurs in cars or patrol wagons, but in the latter event a police officer is always present.

'Matrons' have been employed as civilian personnel since before 1899. They are...