Wilson v. State Personnel Commission
| Decision Date | 19 June 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 7760,7760 |
| Citation | 387 A.2d 1160,118 N.H. 424 |
| Parties | Ralph A. WILSON et al., v. The STATE of New Hampshire PERSONNEL COMMISSION. |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Brown & Nixon P.A., Manchester (David W. Hess, Manchester, orally), for plaintiffs.
David H. Souter, Atty. Gen. (Stephen J. McAuliffe, (Rule 23) orally), for defendant.
This is a petition for a writ of certiorari by State police detectives of various ranks contesting the failure of the personnel commission to assign them a labor grade higher than State police line officers of identical rank.
The State police is organized into two departments: the traffic bureau staffed by line officers and the detective bureau staffed by detective officers. In each bureau the officers hold various ranks, such as corporal, sergeant and lieutenant. There has been a one-labor grade differential in favor of detective officers over line officers of the same rank since 1962, when detective positions were first created. This differential was continued when separate bureaus were established in 1972. However, in October 1974, this differential was eliminated at the request of the commissioner of safety by elevating all line officers by one labor grade.
In August 1975, the commissioner of safety requested the personnel department to conduct a review of all classified positions within the division of State police. The review resulted in a report by Director of Personnel Lang. Among other changes he recommended a return to the one-labor grade differential in favor of detective officers over line officers and that detectives be given a uniform allowance. The commissioner of safety objected in writing. After conferring with the commissioner, Lang was persuaded to change his recommendation to one not providing for any differential in labor grade between detective and line officers.
Plaintiffs appealed to the personnel commission under RSA 98:14. After hearings the commission denied the appeal on January 14, 1977, and on February 4, 1977, denied plaintiffs' motion for rehearing. Plaintiffs then filed this petition for certiorari.
It should be made clear at the beginning that we are dealing here with a petition for a writ of certiorari and not with a statutory appeal under RSA ch. 541. The standard of review established in cases dealing with statutory appeals is therefore not relevant here. The test to determine whether to grant a writ of certiorari is whether the "agency has acted illegally in respect to jurisdiction, authority or observance of the law . . . or has abused its discretion or acted arbitrarily, unreasonably or capriciously." Slayton v. Personnel Commission, 117 N.H. 206, 208, 371 A.2d 1159, 1161 (1977). (Citations omitted.)
We are not at liberty to substitute our judgment for that of the commission or make findings de novo. Carling Brewing Company v....
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...is executive or administrative rather than judicial. Winn v. Jordan, 101 N.H. 65, 133 A.2d 485 (1957). In Wilson v. Personnel Commission, 118 N.H. ---, 387 A.2d 1160 (1978) because that case was before us on certiorari, we held that the only question for the court was whether the commission......