Source: https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/martin-v-henderson-32707
Timestamp: 2019-10-20 11:50:27
Document Index: 403449195

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 359', '§ 18050', '§ 18052', '§ 4', '§ 18005', '§ 510', '§ 1810', '§ 551', '§ 552', '§ 11152', '§ 11152']

Martin v. Henderson - 40 Cal.2d 583 - Fri, 04/03/1953 | California Supreme Court Resources
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Citation 40 Cal.2d 583
Martin v. Henderson , 40 Cal.2d 583
The facts are undisputed. During the entire period of service, the monthly salary of each petitioner was fully paid. Martin worked about 500 hours in excess of his regular hours of duty, 100 of them being worked between February 6 and September 29, 1943. Redwine's excess hours of duty totaled 332, all but 33 of them being served before February 6, 1943. [40 Cal.2d 586] Martin retired on April 30, 1947. Redwine's separation from service was on March 16, 1947.
Rule 12 of the State Personnel Board, adopted June 17, 1938, with reference to the pay plan for the state civil service provided for pay schedules. Section 2(c) of the rule stated [40 Cal.2d 587] that: "The rates of pay set forth in the pay schedules, unless otherwise indicated in such schedules, represent the total compensation in every form." It was also provided in section 2(h) that: "When the rate of pay is in terms of dollars a month no additional payment for overtime shall be made to any employee for services rendered by him in the same department, whether in the discharge of his ordinary duties or for any other duties which may be imposed upon him or which he may undertake or volunteer to discharge or perform." On October 18, 1940, section 2(h) of rule 12 was amended to read: "When the rate of pay is in terms of dollars a months no additional payment for overtime shall be made to any employee for services rendered by him in the same classification in the same department."
In support of their appeal, the respondents contend that, insofar as hours worked prior to February 6, 1943, are concerned, [40 Cal.2d 588] Martin and Redwine were paid monthly salaries which, by statute, constituted compensation in full for all services which might be rendered by them. Prior to that date, they say, there was no statutory provision for overtime compensation and none could be allowed in the absence of statute. The respondents also argue that the claims are barred by the statute of limitations, regardless of whether the hours were worked prior or subsequent to February 6, 1943. Even if Martin and Redwine are entitled to a cash payment for overtime worked prior to February 6, 1943, the respondents say, the amount should be computed upon the basis of each officer's salary as of the time the hours were worked, rather than as of the time of separation.
Martin and Redwine rely upon Howard v. Lampton, 87 Cal.App.2d 449 [197 P.2d 69], and Clark v. State Personnel Board, 56 Cal.App.2d 499 [133 P.2d 11]. These decisions were based, by analogy, upon Pohle v. Christian, 21 Cal.2d 83 [130 P.2d 417], in which it was held that a civil service employee, upon separation from service without fault on his part, is entitled to a cash payment for accumulated vacation time. The basis for the conclusion in the Pohle case was the statutory provision giving each officer and employee of the state a right to a vacation of specified duration. (Former Pol. Code, § 359c; cf. Gov. Code, § 18050.) In accordance with former section 359d of the Political Code (now Gov. Code, § 18052), the State Personnel Board had provided for payment upon separation for unused portions of vacation time. (State Personnel Board Rule 13, § 4.) The court held that, because the applicable sections of the Political Code "do not expressly or otherwise provide that an employee having the right to a vacation loses his right to compensation for that time upon being separated from the service" he is entitled to payment for unused vacation time. (P. 90.)
The Clark case followed the Pohle decision insofar as payment for accumulated vacation time was concerned. The court then held that, despite the absence of any statutory provision granting time off for overtime work and a rule of the Personnel Board specifically prohibiting payment for overtime, a state employee may be paid upon separation from service for accumulated overtime hours. It said: "We see no difference in principle between allowing an employee a cash payment for accrued vacation time upon his separation from the service, and allowing him, upon such separation, a cash payment in lieu of the compensatory time off to which [40 Cal.2d 589] he may have become entitled because of overtime worked." The rule regarding payment for overtime hours expressed in the Clark case was applied to retired officers of the highway patrol in the Howard case, which involved a factual situation substantially similar to that here presented.
[2] The statutory and regulatory limitations upon compensation for services are but a codification and application to civil servants of the oft- repeated rule "that a person accepting a public office with a fixed salary is bound to perform the duties of the office for the salary. He cannot legally claim additional compensation for the discharge of these duties, even though the salary may be a very inadequate remuneration for the services, nor does it alter the case that by subsequent statutes or ordinances his duties are increased, and not his salary. His undertaking is to perform the duties of his office, whatever they may be, from time to time during [40 Cal.2d 590] his continuance in office for the compensation stipulated, whether these duties are diminished or increased; and whenever he considers the compensation inadequate he is at liberty to resign." (Dougherty v. Austin, 94 Cal. 601, 629 [28 P. 834, 29 P. 1092, 16 L.R.A. 161]; Buck v. City of Eureka, 109 Cal. 504, 517 [42 P. 243, 30 L.R.A. 409]; McAuliffe v. Kane, 54 Cal.App.2d 288, 296 [128 P.2d 932]; Vogel v. White, 134 Cal.App. 252, 254 [25 P.2d 233]; Kilroy v. Whitmore, 115 Cal.App. 43, 49 [300 P. 851].)
[5] "The terms and conditions of civil service employment are fixed by statute and not by contract. (Citations.) 'When an employee of the state, under civil service, accepts a position, he does so with knowledge of the fact that his salary, and, indeed, his conduct, are both subject to the law governing such matters, as set forth in the statute and the rules and regulations of the commission.' (Citations.) [6] The statutory provisions controlling the terms and conditions of civil service employment cannot be circumvented [40 Cal.2d 591] by purported contracts in conflict therewith." (Boren v. State Personnel Board, 37 Cal.2d 634, 641 [234 P.2d 981].)
[9] Section 19630 of the Government Code, as here material, provides: "No action or proceeding shall be brought by any person having or claiming to have a cause of action or complaint or ground for issuance of any complaint or [40 Cal.2d 592] legal remedy for wrongs or grievances based on or related to any civil service law in this State or the administration thereof unless such action or proceeding is commenced and served within one year after such cause of action or complaint or ground for issuance of any writ or legal remedy first arose." This is the statute of limitations applicable to salary claims of employees or those who have been separated from service (Philbrick v. State Personnel Board, 53 Cal.App.2d 222, 230 [127 P.2d 634]) and controls the time for bringing any action upon a claim for overtime services. (Broyles v. State Personnel Board, 42 Cal.App.2d 303, 307 [108 P.2d 714].)
It is conceded that each of these proceedings was commenced within one year after the date of the petitioner's separation from service. Relying upon Dillon v. Board of Pension Commrs., 18 Cal.2d 427 [116 P.2d 37, 136 A.L.R. 800], the respondents contend that the statute commenced to run upon August 21, 1945, when the department rejected all claims for accumulated overtime. Martin and Redwine argue that this contention was concluded by Howard v. Lampton, supra, pp. 456-457, which held that the statute did not start to run until the date of separation from service.
[10] No cause of action to compel the payment of overtime claims accrued to Martin and Redwine prior to their separation from service. Until that date, they might have been given compensating time off whenever their departmental superiors deemed it convenient to the service. The petitioners had no legal remedy to compel their superiors to give them time off at any specific time, or at all. Only in the event uncompensated overtime remained upon their [40 Cal.2d 593] separation from service did a right accrue to them to compel action by the department.
[11] However, the availability of such an action would in no way affect the period of limitations commencing upon the department's breach of its obligation to pay for accumulated overtime. [12] As stated in Maguire v. Hibernia Sav. & L. Soc., 23 Cal.2d 719 [146 P.2d 673, 151 A.L.R. 1062], "the period of limitations applicable to ordinary actions at law and suits in equity should be applied in like manner to actions for declaratory relief. Thus, if declaratory relief is sought with reference to an obligation which has been breached and the right to commence an action for 'coercive' relief upon the cause of action arising therefrom is barred by the statute, the right to declaratory relief is likewise barred. On the other hand, if declaratory relief is sought 'before there has been a breach of the obligation in respect to which said declaration is sought,' or within the statutory period after the breach, the right to such relief is not barred by lapse of time. (Citations.) There is no anomaly in the fact that a party may have a right to sue for declaratory relief without setting in motion the statute of limitations. Quiet title actions, forerunners of declaratory actions, may be maintained when an adverse claim to property is asserted, but the period of limitations does not commence to run at that date." (P. 734.)
The amounts to which Martin and Redwine are entitled are to be computed by "projecting the accumulated time on a calendar basis so that the lump sum will equal the amount which [they] would have been paid had [they] taken the time off but not separated from the service." (Gov. Code, § 18005.) At the time of his separation from service, Martin's salary amounted to $340 per month, or $1.70 per hour based upon a 48-hour week. Subsequent to February 6, [40 Cal.2d 594] 1943, he accumulated 100 1/2 overtime hours, or a sum equal to $170.85. Redwine's salary at the time of his separation from service was $310 per month, or $1.54 per hour. For the 33 hours of accumulated overtime for which he legally may claim compensation, he is entitled to $50.82.
The overtime pay here claimed must be allowed under Pohle v. Christian, 21 Cal.2d 83 [130 P.2d 417]. In that case plaintiff sought to recover a lump sum for accumulated vacation pay after he was separated from his position. It was held that he was entitled to pay for the vacation accumulated prior to his severance on the ground that sections 359c and 359d of the Political Code then authorized vacations and the accumulation of vacation time. It made no provision, however, for payment of accumulated vacation time after separation from service, where the vacation was not taken prior to separation. That case has since been followed. (Clark v. State Personnel Board, 56 Cal.App.2d 499 [133 P.2d 11]; Verry v. Eckel, 61 Cal.App.2d 595 [143 P.2d 394].) The majority seeks to escape the effect of that case by asserting that at common law there is no right to recover for overtime when a person is hired by the month, and there is no statute [40 Cal.2d 595] authorizing payment for overtime as there was authorizing a vacation in the Pohle case. In that reasoning the majority is in error. The statutes in force at the time the overtime service was rendered provided: "Eight hours of labor constitutes a day's work, unless it is otherwise expressly stipulated by the parties to a contract." (Lab. Code, § 510.) "Eight hours labor constitutes a legal day's work in all cases where the same is performed under the authority of any law of this State, or under the direction, or control, or by the authority of any officer of this State acting in his official capacity, or under the direction, or control or by the authority of any municipal corporation, or of any officer thereof." (Lab. Code, § 1810.) "Every person employed in any occupation of labor is entitled to one day's rest therefrom in seven." (Lab. Code, § 551.) "No employer of labor shall cause his employees to work more than six days in seven." (Lab. Code, § 552.) While those provisions do not expressly state that they apply to the state as an employer, there is no reason why they should not inasmuch as they are not in derogation of the state's sovereignty and there is no reason why we should suppose that the Legislature intended to require private employers to treat their employees in a more favorable manner than its own employees. There is, therefore, statutory authority which fixes the hours of labor like that in the Pohle case which authorizes a vacation and an accumulation thereof for which pay may be recovered on separation from service. From such authority it follows that work beyond those hours is overtime and compensation therefor should be paid the same as in the Pohle case where it was held that from the establishment of the right to a vacation and to accumulate it, a right to be paid for the vacation when not taken ensued. Moreover, it should be noted that the heads of departments of the state "may arrange and classify the work of the department" and adopt rules and regulations "necessary to govern the activities of the department" and may "assign" to its "employees such duties as it sees fit." (Gov. Code, § 11152.) Having that authority it could, as it did, require employees to work overtime and make a valid promise to give time off in lieu thereof. Having failed to give the time off before the separation of the employee from service, like an untaken vacation in the Pohle case, it is proper to award the employee money for the withheld time off as was done for untaken vacation time in the Pohle case. It is clear, therefore, that there was statutory [40 Cal.2d 596] authority for agreeing to give time off for overtime, and in lieu thereof compensation, and the Pohle case is controlling.
In addition, however, the state is estopped to assert that the department of motor vehicles through the chief of the highway patrol did not have authority to promise time off for overtime. The case of Boren v. State Personnel Board, 37 Cal.2d 634 [234 P.2d 981], is clearly distinguishable. In the Boren case there was positive statutory authority to transfer an employee from one part of the state to another (here we have no positive statutory provision that there shall be no pay for overtime; the statutes are to the contrary) and there was no showing in that case of unjust enrichment by the state at the expense of the employee as we have here. Here the employee was promised time off to compensate for overtime. In reliance thereon he gave extra time to the state. If the state may take that extra labor without paying for it as the majority holds, the state is being unjustly enriched at the expense of the employee. We have, therefore, a clear case of estoppel. There are many cases where estoppel may run against the government. (See cases cited, Farrell v. County of Placer, 23 Cal.2d 624, 628 [145 P.2d 570, 153 A.L.R. 323].) A few instances may be pointed out in which the justice of invoking estoppel is present as much or even less than here. In Times-Mirror Co. v. Superior Court, 3 Cal.2d 309 [44 P.2d 547], the city of Los Angeles was held estopped to abandon eminent domain proceedings where, in reliance thereon, defendant property owner had acquired other property and constructed a building thereon. It was there said (p. 330), "If the city had expressly agreed by its officers with defendants' grantors, even in parol, that a certain line should constitute the boundary line between the street and the grantor's property, and upon the faith of such agreement the grantors had erected a block of buildings flush with the line of the street as agreed upon by all parties, it would be a hard law that would allow the city to repudiate that agreement, and destroy the grantor's property. No court should countenance such a thing, and an estoppel in pais will rise up in the pathway of a city to bar it and its principal, the people, from the commission of such a grievous wrong; and to give the acts of this city a very limited meaning we think its conduct in the present case at least equivalent to an oral agreement as to the location of the true boundary line of the street." (To the same effect, see McGee v. City of Los Angeles, 6 Cal.2d 390 [57 P.2d 925].) In City of Los Angeles v. Cohn, 101 Cal. [40 Cal.2d 597] 373 [35 P. 1002], the city was estopped to claim property which it owned but said it did not and in reliance thereon the person who had been in possession thereof built a building on it. The same situation, except it was a canal through a city, was involved in Fresno v. Fresno C. & I. Co., 98 Cal. 179 [32 P. 943]. Land claimed by the city as streets was considered in Sacramento v. Clunie 120 Cal. 29 [52 P. 44]. In City of Los Angeles v. County of Los Angeles, 9 Cal.2d 624 [72 P.2d 138, 113 A.L.R. 370], a county was held estopped to collect from a railroad company additional payments for use of its land when it had been accepting certain payments for 15 years. In Contra Costa Water Co. v. Breed, 139 Cal. 432 [73 P. 189], the city was held liable for water it received and was estopped to deny liability on the claim that its ordinance providing for payment was invalid. In Tyra v. Board of Police etc. Commrs., 32 Cal.2d 666 [197 P.2d 710], it was held that the city was estopped to plead the statute of limitation in an action by an employee for a pension where the pension commissioners had erroneously told him he could not receive a pension while he was receiving workmen's compensation. Baird v. City of Fresno, 97 Cal.App.2d 336 [217 P.2d 681], is particularly applicable. It was there held that the city was estopped, when a pension was claimed, to rely on the invalidity of its determination made many years before that its employees should be credited with 9 years of service with the city. Mention is made in some of these cases that where there is general power authorizing action by a governmental body in a particular field, the government may be estopped to assert irregularity in the exercise of that power. Here we have the general power in the department (Gov. Code, § 11152, supra) and it has been so recognized by this court (Nelson v. Dean, 27 Cal.2d 873 [168 P.2d 16, 168 A.L.R. 467]). None of the foregoing authorities presents a clearer case for estoppel than the case at bar.
There is no suggestion of fraud or overreaching on the part of either petitioner. Each faithfully discharged the [40 Cal.2d 598] duties assigned to him and each during the periods of time involved worked many hours in excess of his regular hours of duty. Thus, during the years 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1943, Mr. Redwine worked a total of 370.75 overtime hours and was allowed 38 hours compensating time off, leaving a net balance of 332.75 compensating hours off due him. During 1941, 1942, and 1943, Mr. Martin performed a total of 568.5 hours of overtime work and was allowed 32.5 hours of compensating time off, leaving a balance due him of 536 compensating time off hours.
It thus appears that employes in the position of petitioners here were entitled to compensating time off to balance their overtime, such compensating time off to be allowed at the convenience of the employe's superior officer. Although (prior to February 6, 1943) there was no statute providing for cash payment in settlement for overtime worked it is quite apparent that the state did expect to balance its accounts with employes for overtime services by allowing an equivalent amount of compensating time off. If the petitioners here had remained in the state service indefinitely and had eventually, at the convenience of their superiors, been allowed the full amount of their overtime as compensating time off I think that neither this litigation nor any based on such allowance would ever have arisen. [40 Cal.2d 599]
I see no valid objection to applying such section to the petitioners here. Their service extended beyond the effective date of the quoted statute. Up to and at the time of their separation, the trial court was justified in concluding, they had a right to compensating time off. The state could settle that account with them either by permitting them to continue in employment at the prevailing current wage until they had been given compensating time off to fully balance their accumulated overtime or, by virtue of the quoted statute, which we must presume the Legislature found good reason for enacting, it could settle by the "lump sum payment." That the "lump sum payment" was more desirable to the state than having the employe continue on the payroll, occupying a position but on a time off basis until his accumulated overtime was fully offset, is readily understandable. The state may well have needed to fill the position with a person who would be immediately available for work. Upon separation [40 Cal.2d 600] from the service without fault on their part the petitioners, by virtue of the statute, became entitled to the "lump sum payment." This is no gift of public money; it does not present petitioners with anything of value which they have not earned; it is merely an alternative method of settling a current account which the state has found to be advantageous to it.
­FN 1. Headquarters General Order No. 295 was dated September 28, 1939, by its terms became effective October 1, 1939, and superseded Headquarters General Order No. 243, issued July 23, 1936. Headquarters General Order No. 394 was dated August 5, 1942, and superseded No. 295. The substance of Headquarters General Order No. 243 is not shown here (it does appear in the companion case of Jarvis v. Henderson, post, p. 600 [255 P.2d 426]) but there is no contention that it differed materially from Nos. 295 and 394 in respect to the allowance of compensating time off for overtime worked.
­FN *. A rehearing was granted by the Supreme Court on May 1, 1953.
Fri, 04/03/1953 40 Cal.2d 583 Review - Criminal Appeal Opinion issued
1 ANDREW W. MARTIN (Respondent)
2 , v. A. H. HENDERSON, as Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, etc., et al., Appellants. (, v. A. H. HENDERSON, as Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, etc., et al.)
3 ANDREW W. MARTIN (Respondent)
SCOCAL, Martin v. Henderson , 40 Cal.2d 583 available at: (https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/martin-v-henderson-32707) (last visited Sunday October 20, 2019).