Court Opinion

ID: 9694855
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:57:08.680409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:05.637255
License: Public Domain

LAWSON, Justice
(concurring specially).
I am of the opinion the decree appealed from must be reversed for the reason that the bill states a case for the rendering of a declaratory judgment defining the rights of the parties under the ordinance assailed. City of Bessemer v. Bessemer Theatres, 252 Ala. 117, 39 So.2d 658.
I am in accord with the conclusion reached that a municipality may legally adopt an ordinance prohibiting its policemen and firemen from being members of a labor union.
In my opinion, the ordinance under consideration does not deprive the affected city employees from severing any connection which they might have had with labor organizations. Such action could have been taken subsequent to the date of enactment of the ordinance and the date prescribed for the filing of the statement required by the ordinance. City of Jackson v. McLeod, 199 Miss. 676, 24 So.2d 319.
I cannot agree that §§ 3 and 4 of the the ordinance conflict with the terms and provisions of the act creating the merit system of the City of Mobile and Mobile County. True, those sections of the ordinance provide that employees who do not file the required affidavit shall immediately have their services terminated. But, in my opinion, this provision does not conflict with the terms of the aforementioned merit act. The merit act does not purport to deny to the governing authorities of the political subdivisions involved the power to dismiss employees. The act does not confer upon those charged with administering its provisions the power to dismiss employees. In this connection the merit act only sets up a procedure whereby the action of the governing authority in dismissing an employee is subject to review when the employee duly requests such a review. Sections 3 and 4 of the ordinance here under consideration contain no language which, in my opinion, is subject to be construed as purporting to deny to any employee dismissed because of his failure to file the required affidavit the right to have the action of dismissal reviewed by the merit system authorities. An employee so dismissed stands in the same position as any other employee who had been dismissed by the governing authorities. For his dismissal to be lawful,, the city governing authorities must give him the notice required by the terms of the merit act and, upon such notice being given, he has the right to have the action of the city authorities reviewed. The inquiry on appeal would be whether the employee had failed to comply with the terms of the ordinance, for it cannot be said to be the power of the merit system authorities to pass on the propriety of the action of the *154governing authorities in adopting the ordinance.
The construction placed on §§ 3 and 4 of the ordinance by the majority is, as I understand it, that an ordinance such as this, which is merely a declaration of policy, must contain express language showing that dismissals for failure to comply with the policy prescribed will be taken in accordance with the terms of the merit act. In my opinion this is entirely unnecessary. As before indicated, there is nothing in the act to support a conclusion that the city authorities, in enforcing the provisions of the ordinance, do not intend to comply with the provisions of the merit act relating to the dismissal of city employees.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and STAKELY, J., concur in these views.