Board of Education of Los Angeles County v. Commission on Professional Competence

Opinion

KINGSLEY, Acting P. J.

Appellants appeal from a judgment denying a petition for writ of mandate to set aside a decision of respondent, Commission on Professional Competence (CPC), dismissing appellant, Leo F. Smyth (Smyth), from employment by the Board of Education of the County of Los Angeles (Board). We reverse.

Respondents, Board and the Superintendent of Schools of the County of Los Angeles (Clowes), cross-appeal from the above named judgment wherein it is ordered that cross-appellants pay Smyth back salary and wherein cross-appellants’ request for further relief is denied. We affirm as to those portions of the judgment.

Facts

On May 29, 1973, the Board and Clowes notified appellant, Smyth, a classroom teacher employed by the Board, that he was charged with immoral conduct and evident unfitness for service and was therefore immediately suspended pursuant to Education Code section 13410.

[667]

Smyth thereafter demanded a hearing on the above charges, which was held before the Commission on Professional Competence (CPC).

On October 11, 1973, the CPC decided that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the charge of evident unfitness for service, since notice of said charge was not given until May 29, 1973, well after the May 15 deadline for dismissal notices for such a reason, under Education Code section 13405. The CPC further found that Smyth was not guilty of immoral conduct, and thus concluded that he should not be dismissed.

The Board then filed a petition for writ of mandate seeking to vacate said decision of the CPC. The superior court granted the writ on the ground that the CPC should have considered the ground of evident unfitness for service as a basis for dismissal.

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On remand, the CPC, on July 1, 1974, without additional evidentiary hearings, reaffirmed its prior decision that Smyth was not guilty of immoral conduct, but found him guilty of evident unfitness for service and ordered that he be dismissed. The effect of this decision was to require the Board to make Smyth whole for lost salary between May 29, 1973, (the date when he was suspended) and July 1, 1974, (the date of the CPC’s decision).