Opinion ID: 1139949
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Burden of proof in regard to public employee's duty to mitigate damages.

Text: It is the accepted doctrine in the great majority of jurisdictions that the burden of establishing by affirmative evidence the existence of any circumstances which would entitle the government to a mitigation of the damages suffered by the public employee by his wrongful removal from his position lies on the government. This rule applies equally to actual and potential earnings of the public employee. No decisions of this court are there cited as bearing on this question, but decisions of eight other states are cited in support of the text quoted above. [4] We are in accord with what is there described to be the weight of authority, and hold that appellants had the burden of proving mitigation of damages as a defense in this case. No such defense was pleaded by appellants, and no evidence was offered by them that either respondent had earned wages at other employment after their wrongful dismissal by the county. The trial court committed no error in allowing recovery of back pay according to the county wage scale. The essential elements of the public policy of this state on the subject of veterans' preference in public employment, as declared in the enactments of the legislature, have remained substantially unchanged for sixty years. Any change in that policy must come from the legislature and not from the courts. Until a change is made, it is the duty of the courts to apply the language of the veterans' preference act to the facts of each case as it is presented. [5] In the case at bar, neither the veteran employees nor the nonveteran employees of the county have any vested right to public employment. Jahn v. Seattle, 120 Wash. 403, 207 Pac. 667, and State ex rel. Raines v. Seattle, 134 Wash. 360, 235 Pac. 968. But, while respondents have no vested right to public employment, the legislature has given them a preferential right to appointment and employment in public work over nonveterans, and has specifically afforded them the right to enforce this preference by court proceedings. This is the legal basis for the distinction between these two classes of public employees. Finding no error in the conclusions of law to which appellants have assigned error, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. HAMLEY, C.J., SCHWELLENBACH, FINLEY, and OTT, JJ., concur.