Court Opinion

ID: 9630123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:01:17.295718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:31.431184
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Musmanno :
On February 15, 1954, the Council of the Borough of Burgettstown, Washington County, dismissed Henry Vega as chief of police, a post he had held for four years. He appealed the dismissal to the Court of Com*414mon Pleas which reversed the action of the Council by ordering a suspension of 60 days and requiring the Borough to reinstate Vega as of April 16, 1954. Under this order Vega tendered himself for reinstatement, but the Council refused to accept him, appealing to this Court for a reversal of the decision of the Court of Common Pleas. This Court affirmed the decision of the lower Court, adding that it was warranted in finding that Vega “possessed the qualifications and the ability to make a good police officer.” (383 Pa. 44, 50). Finally on November 28, 1955, Burgettstown reinstated Vega with all authority, powers, and duties of the chief of police of that municipality.
Since this Court by its decision declared that the Borough had not been justified in dismissing Vega, Vega properly made a claim for the salary which was withheld from him during the entire time that he was qualified, ready and willing to take up his duties, namely, from April 16, 1954 to November 28, 1955. As his salary was $300 a month, the total amount due him under this computation was $5850. Buttressing his claim for the amount in question, Vega cited Section 4 of the Act of 1951, June 15, P. L. 586 (53 P.S. 814) which says: “The appointing authority may suspend any such person without pay pending the determination of the charges against him, but in the event the appointing authority fails to uphold the charges, then the person sought to be suspended or removed shall be reinstated with full pay for the period during which he was suspended . . .” (Emphasis supplied).
The Borough resisted payment of the $5850 because Vega, while awaiting determination of the courts as to his rights, obtained employment with the Weirton Ice & Coal Supply Company in Weirton, W. Va., earning, during the period he was barred from his police chiefship, the sum of $5608.56. The Borough offered *415to pay Vega the difference between $5850 and $5608.56: Vega refused to settle on this basis and a lawsuit fob lowed.' The Court of Common Pleas of Washington County decided in favor of the Borough, and the plaintiff appealed.
This Court now affirms the judgment of the lower Court and, by doing so, amends an Act of the Legislature without the slightest authority to do so. It'.makes “full pay” read “part pay.” It does more. It penalizes the innocent party in a lawsuit and rewards the guilty party. The highest Court of this Commonwealth has declared that the Borough of Burgettstown illegally and unjustly dismissed Vega and yet this same Court now says that the guilty Borough is entitled to the $5608.56 which was paid by the Weirton Ice & Coal Supply Company to Vega for services rendered by him to that corporation. This Court thus introduces Burgettstown into a transaction in which it had no business whatsoever.
While law does not necessarily (unfortunately) have to coincide with the recognized virtues of good living, courts and judges should still avoid making decisions which are shocking to conscience and which are derogatory of public welfare. There is something quite startling (insofar as public welfare is concerned) about a Court decision which places a premium on sloth and a penalty on industry. If Vega had sat in his parlor for nineteen months doing nothing but watching television, eating sandwiches, and drinking beer, the Borough would have had to pay him $5,850, but, because he exerted himself, as a good citizen and a responsible member of society should, by working, while the Borough was denying him what he was entitled to, he must give up $5,608.56 which he earned by his own sweat 'and toil. Such a situation does not strike a very melodious chord on the piano of justice which I always *416try to keep tuned in the living room of my mind and heart.
The Majority Opinion says: “The improperly dismissed employee is protected from financial loss but [is] not to be unjustly enriched.” But since the Majority’s statement specifically declares that the employee was “improperly dismissed” how can there be an unjust enrichment? Even if the municipality paid Vega the entire amount of $5850 due him during the period of improper dismissal, he would still be out of pocket because of the not inconsiderable expense to which he was subjected in litigating his claim now proved to be in accordance with law.
The Majority cites the case of Seltzer v. Reading, 151 Pa. Superior Ct. 226, where “full pay” was also interpreted to mean “part pay.” But if it is wrong today to distort the plain wording of a statute, the distortion is not straightened by showing that on a prior occasion the same deforming manipulation took place. If the Legislature intended that where an improper dismissal occurs the employee should only be paid the difference between what he has earned and what he should have been paid during the dismissal interval, it would have been a very simple matter to have so stated. I believe that it is gratuitous on the part of this Court to read into statutes what is precisely not there and what was undoubtedly purposely omitted.
It may well be that the Legislature intended to penalize municipalities for improper dismissals by requiring them to pay the innocent and injured employee Ms full pay for the period he was under unjust accusation. It may also be that the Legislature intended by the provision in question to compel the municipality to proceed expeditiously in resolving any dispute between it and the employee. Under the Majority’s ruling the municipality has nothing to lose by an undue *417prolongation of the controversy (once it knows the employee is employed elsewhere) even though the delay may be subjecting the employee to considerable hardship. In the very case at bar it will be noted that Yega had to leave Burgettstown and work in a town far removed from his home in order to get bread to put on the table for himself and family, while the question of his illegal dismissal was being adjudicated.
The Majority sees much merit in a distinction attempted to be drawn by the lower Court as follows: “Where the duties of the office are to be exercised for the benefit of the public, for a stipulated compensation to be paid by the public, where the term is definite and the tenure certain, and where the powers, duties and emoluments become vested in a successor when the office becomes vacant, the occupant of such office is a public officer. On the other hand, it is recognized that some officers, although they have some public duties to perform, are not to be considered public officers, when their work in the. main is of a ministerial nature . . .”
I fail to see the distinction. The Court says that a chief of police “exercises no public functions, his duties are purely ministerial.” I should think that the functions of a chief of police are quite public and that his duties involve a great deal of discretion. He does not arrest blindly or by chance, he does not establish fire lines and police lines by rote, he does not quell riots and disturbances by mechanical routine.
The Majority quotes from the case of Alworth v. County of Lackawanna, 85 Pa. Superior Ct. 349, 352, which says: “If the officer is chosen by the electorate, or appointed, for a definite and certain tenure in the manner provided by law to an office whose duties are of a grave and important character, involving some of the functions of government, and are to be exercised *418for the benefit of the public for a fixed compensation paid out of the public treasury, it is safe to say that the incumbent is a public officer.” All these provisions would still apply to a chief of police because he is certainly appointed for a definite and certain tenure and his duties are indeed of a just and important character and they are certainly exercised for the benefit of the public for a fixed compensation paid out of the public treasury.
With all respect, I must say that in a case of this kind, the distinction being attempted by the lower Court, and affirmed by this Court, between a public officer and a public employee is illusory and deceptive. Under the rule here announced by this Court a director of public safety would indubitably be regarded as a public officer and if dismissed improperly would, upon reinstatement, be entitled to the full salary of his office even though in the meantime he had been employed by a private corporation at a higher salary than his director’s salary, while a chief of police, for doing the same thing, would lose his salary completely or have it considerably reduced. This is a distinction which does not appeal to my sense of justice and it is a distinction which, as I read the statute, the Legislature never intended to make.
When the Constitution is amended to provide that the Supreme Court shall sit as a super legislative reference bureau to rewrite statutes to conform to its idea of what the law should be, a decision such as the one now being promulgated will be entirely in order. However, until that time arrives, I must assert that we have no right to declare that when the Legislature says “full pay” it must have been unfamiliar with the rudiments of the English language, and meant to say “part pay,” or “full pay less all the money he has earned elsewhere.”
*419I accordingly dissent.
Mr. Justice Bell joins in this dissent.