Clark v. State Personnel Board

ADAMS, P. J.

Frank W. Clark, as Director of Public Works, and other officers of the Department of Public Works, filed a petition for writ of mandate to compel the State Personnel Board to approve a payroll claim for moneys alleged to be due to said department as "reimbursement for a payment made from District II revolving fund, to one Leaton G. Foster, who was formerly employed by the Department of Public Works as a highway equipment operator laborer with permanent civil service status. The petition alleges that on February 14, 1942, Foster resigned his position, his resignation to take effect on and after February 15; that he had, prior to February 15, “earned overtime of fifteen (15) hours,

[500]

and accumulated vacation time” in the amount of eight full days, and that he was carried on the payroll until February 25, and paid from the revolving fund of said department “to cover said accumulated vacation and earned overtime”; that thereafter the claim of the Department of Public Works for reimbursement for the amount paid Foster was disapproved by the Personnel Board, on the ground that Foster’s resignation was final on February 15; that on March 21, Foster submitted a second letter changing the effective date of his resignation from February 15, to February 25, and said letter was submitted to the Personnel Board; but that said board still refused to approve the claim.

Respondents filed a general demurrer to the petition, and the matter was subsequently submitted to this court on a'stipulation setting forth that the attorney general (except for possible inconsistencies) and the Personnel Board had for twenty-five years refused to approve cash payments to resigned state employees in lieu of vacations not taken prior to the effective dates of their resignations; that the Personnel Board had consistently for many years permitted the substitution of a second resignation or an amendment of a prior resignation to permit payment for unused vacation periods, but that said practice was discontinued June 30, 1942, with the submission of an opinion of the attorney general disapproving the practice.

Since the submission of the matter to this court the allowance of cash payments to state employees for unused vacation periods upon their separation from state service has been approved by the Supreme Court in the ease of