Wallace v. State Personnel Board

168 Cal.App.2d 543 (1959) JOHN A. WALLACE, Appellant,

v.

STATE PERSONNEL BOARD et al., Respondents.

Civ. No. 9447. California Court of Appeals. Third Dist.

Mar. 9, 1959. Frank G. Finnegan for Appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Attorney General, Willard A. Shank, Deputy Attorney General, Robert E. Reed and John B. Matheny for Respondents.

PEEK, J.

This is an appeal by petitioner Wallace from a judgment denying his petition for a writ of mandate whereby he sought to annul an order of the State Personnel Board, referred to herein as the Board, and be restored to his former civil service position with the State of California.

From 1949 until he was discharged in 1955, petitioner had been a permanent civil service employee of the Division of Architecture of the Department of Public Works of the State of California, which we shall refer to as the Department, and since 1951 had been employed in the capacity of senior electrical engineer assigned to the Sacramento office of the Department. While at Sacramento his duties, which required substantial travel of from two to four thousand miles per month, included inspecting electrical installations in state construction projects, interpreting plans and specifications and clarifying misunderstandings relative thereto, inspecting installations with respect to whether or not the work was proceeding according to plan, rendering decisions as to intent [545] of design, making final inspections and preparing all necessary reports relative thereto.

On August 1, 1955, petitioner was transferred from Sacramento to the Los Angeles office where he was assigned similar work. Approximately two weeks after his assumption of duties in that office he began to feel ill. This he described as extreme depression, severe headaches, fatigue, muscle tension, insomnia, loss of weight, and mental confusion. This condition became progressively worse, and on August 29, after completing an assignment at Bishop, California, he returned to Sacramento to consult his family physician, Dr. James D. Coyle. Following his examination of petitioner, Dr. Coyle determined that he was suffering from a complete physical and emotional collapse. He prescribed medication and complete rest. Petitioner thereupon requested sick leave for the month of October. His request stated he was suffering from "complete physical and emotional collapse." Attached to said request was a certificate from Dr. Coyle stating: "My present diagnosis, well verified, is Myocardial Strain, aggravated by a severe emotional disturbance. I have advised him that he cannot return to work at least until 11-15-55, and probably not at that time." The department referred his request to Dr. Norris Jones, the medical officer for the Board, who in turn ordered an independent medical examination of petitioner by Dr. Herbert W. Jenkins. Dr. Jenkins concluded his report as follows: "On the basis of his statements and my examination, I do not believe there is any physical reason for his not returning to work. He intimated that he might prefer to take a demotion if he could continue to live in this area. He apparently would be incapacitated by symptoms of nervous origin if he were forced to move to the Los Angeles Area." On the basis of Dr. Jenkins' report, the Department, on November 29, 1955, disapproved petitioner's request for sick leave in its entirety and ordered him to return to work in Los Angeles, stating that should he refuse to do so his services would be terminated by reason of the automatic resignation provisions contained in Government Code, section 19503. Thereafter petitioner filed a further request for sick leave for the month of November which likewise was denied as was his request for the month of December. The amount of his accumulated sick leave is not questioned. On December 10 petitioner appealed to the Board from denials of his applications for sick leave and also appealed from the order of the