Holmberg v. City of Oakland

RICHARDS, J.

This appeal is from a judgment in favor of the defendant in an action brought by the plaintiff to recover the sum of $358.75 alleged to be due for surgical services, hospital bills, etc., incurred and paid by the plaintiff while under treatment for injuries suffered by him while a patrolman on the police force of said city.

The date of the plaintiff’s said injuries was October 3, 1914, and he continued to suffer therefrom up to and including March 16, 1920, at which date the operation was performed and the hospital and other medical bills contracted which form the basis of the present action.

[271]

The plaintiff rests his right of recovery upon the provisions of section 92% of the city charter, which reads as follows: “Any officer or member of the police department sustaining an injury while in the performance of his duty shall be entitled to receive in addition to the benefits otherwise provided in article XIV 'of this charter such medical, surgical and hospital treatment, including nursing, medicines, medical and surgical supplies, crutches and apparatus, including artificial members, as may be required during the continuance of his disability, the same to be provided by the City; and the Council shall allow such officer or member so injured full pay during the continuance of his disability, or until such time as he may be retired on a pension.”

The defendant resists the plaintiff’s claim upon the sole ground that the foregoing section of the city charter was enacted and went into effect on January 18, 1919, and that said section of the charter is not retroactive so as to be given application to injuries sustained prior to the said date when it became effective.

[1]

We are entirely satisfied that this contention must be sustained.

[2]

It is a well-settled rule of this and many other states that legislative acts are not to be considered retrospective unless the intention to make them so clearly appears from their terms.

(Willcox

v. Edwards, 162 Cal. 460 [Ann. Cas. 1913C, 1392, 123 Pac. 276];