Court Opinion

ID: 9546140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:25:28.730909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:03.075000
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
Richfield City has petitioned for rehearing pointing out that the court’s opinion did not cite nor rely upon Jolley v. Lindon City, Utah, 684 P.2d 47 (1984). We acknowledge our oversight. That case, too, involved the firing of the chief of police in a third class city. However, the contention there made by the appellant chief of police was that U.C.A., 1953, § 10-3-911 could not apply to him because he was discharged for investigating a city councilman in his official duties. The contention was not there made, as in the instant case, that section 10-3-911 does not in any instance apply to chiefs of police in third class cities. In a per curiam opinion, we held that since section 10-3-911 contained no exceptions, it was inconsequential why the chief was dismissed. We also found lacking merit the appellant’s contention that the city council had not formally dismissed him. Again, no contention was made that the city council lacked that statutory power.
After careful consideration of the appellant’s petition for rehearing, we deny it and overrule Jolley v. Lindon City, supra, insofar as our decision in that case conflicts with our opinion in the instant case. Furthermore, we have carefully examined Chapter 3 of Title 10 and have found that in each instance when the term “Board of Commissioners” is used, it refers only to the governing body of cities of the first and second class. We can find no instance in which that term was used to refer to the governing body of cities generally, including a city council in a third class city. In Chapter 3, the term “governing body” is consistently used (over seventy-five times) when reference is made to cities generally, that is, of all three classes.
The petition for rehearing is denied.
ZIMMERMAN, J., did not participate herein.