Pootel v. City & County of San Francisco

GIBSON (Lilburn), J. pro tem.* We are satisfied the judgment in this case may not be upheld.

The respondent was a member of the San Francisco Police Department from June 19, 1914 until his retirement on June 30, 1950. During this time he served in the capacity of patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant, captain of traffic and director of traffic, and in the course of his said employment worked several hours overtime. Prior to February 13,1937, no records of overtime were kept in the central files of the police department, but in that year, in accordance with an order of the chief of police, all records of overtime were sent to the chief’s office, and thereafter all such overtime records were kept there. At the time of this change, in 1937, a time card was set up for Mr. Pootel which showed 32 hours of strike duty and 295 hours of other overtime accrued up to that date, and the whole record up to June 30, 1950 showed there were 633 hours of overtime credited to him, 570 of which were credited prior to July 1, 1944, and 63 hours since that date. This was the only record kept anywhere of respondent’s time; the time rolls showed no record of overtime earned.

Prior to 1944 the charter of the city contained no provision for the payment of compensation for overtime worked in the police department, the only compensation to which such a member was entitled being the annual salary provided for therein (section 35 of the charter from 1937 to January 11, 1943, and section 35.5 thereof from January 12, 1943, to July 1, 1944). In 1944 a charter amendment was adopted (Proposition No. 6, §35.5%), which, for the first time, provided that members of the police department might be paid [380]for overtime, in addition to their regular salaries, and the machinery therefor was at once enacted by the proper city authorities.

The respondent had given information to the police department when he first entered the service, showing he would become 65 years old on June 30, 1950, and all the records of the department and city retirement board at all times so showed, and this the respondent always knew, until January 25, 1950, when the retirement board corrected his birth date to be June 17, 1887, instead of June 17, 1885, and he was notified to that effect. On June 28, 1950, however, the retirement board reestablished his birth as of June 17, 1885, which required his retirement on June 30, 1950. On July 6, 1950, respondent, in a letter to the board of police commissioners, requested he be paid for 633 hours claimed to have been worked by him in excess of his basic work week, and for which he had received no extra compensation. Upon the failure of the city to pay him as requested, he brought this action for a money judgment in an unnamed sum, and for a writ of mandamus requiring appellants “to approve the necessary time rolls” and authorize “compensation for the 633 hours of time worked in excess of the basic work week for members of the police department, and which remains to the credit of petitioner according to the records of said police department; and as provided by Section 35.5% of the aforesaid Charter.”