Willard v. Civil Service Board of Sioux Falls, 9421

• Decision Date: 07 April 1954
• Docket Number: No. 9421,9421
• Citation: 75 S.D. 297,63 N.W.2d 801
• Parties: WILLARD v. CIVIL SERVICE BOARD OF SIOUX FALLS et al.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 801

63 N.W.2d 801

75 S.D. 297

WILLARD v. CIVIL SERVICE BOARD OF SIOUX FALLS et al.

No. 9421.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

April 7, 1954.

Gene E. Pruitt, Sioux Falls, for plaintiff and appellant.

Thomas J. Barron, Sioux Falls, for defendants and respondents.

RUDOLPH, Judge.

The City of Sioux Falls has established a Civil Service System for its municipal employees, policemen and firemen and has appointed a Civil Service Board. SDC Supp. 45.0201(103). Appellant, William Willard, was discharged from the police force by the Chief of Police and he appealed to the Civil Service Board, which affirmed his discharge. He then had the proceedings of the Board reviewed by the circuit court under a writ of certiorari. The circuit court denied appellant any relief and affirmed the action of the Board.

The proceedings before the circuit court being in certiorari the review by that court extended only to determine whether the Board acted without jurisdiction or in excess of its jurisdiction. SDC 37.0401 and SDC 37.0407. Applying these statutes this court said in the case of State ex rel. Grey v. Circuit Court of Minnehaha County, 58 S.D. 152, 235 N.W. 509, 511, '* * * certiorari cannot be used to examine evidence for the purpose of determining the correctness of a finding, at least in the absence of fraud, or willful and arbitrary disregard of undisputed and indisputable proof wherein credibility of witnesses is not involved.'

We have considered the entire record including the transcript of the testimony. It is not contended the Board was without jurisdiction to review the action of the Chief of Police, or that the proceedings invoking this jurisdiction were illegal or void. The contention seems to be that there was an entire lack of evidence upon which the Board could determine that the Chief of Police discharged appellant 'in good faith for cause,' which is an essential for disciplinary action under the ordinance. Briefly stated, there is evidence supporting the following: Willard while a member of the police force obtained other employment for a period of 8 hours each day. His regular employment as a policeman was from 10 o'clock A.M. to 6 o'clock P.M. each day except Sunday. His outside employment was from 11 P.M. to 7 A.M. If a member of the police force wished to augment his salary with some outside work he was required to file an application with the Chief of Police stating the nature of outside work and the time that would be required. Willard had made such application in June 1952 for work which involved 4 hour's time each day four days a week. This application had been granted. However, it appears that he made no request to be permitted to perform the outside work involved in this dispute. Upon hearing that he was performing such work the Chief of Police called him in and...