Campbell v. City of Hot Springs

341 S.W.2d 225, 232 Ark. 878, 1960 Ark. LEXIS 511
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 12, 1960
Docket5-2200
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 341 S.W.2d 225 (Campbell v. City of Hot Springs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Campbell v. City of Hot Springs, 341 S.W.2d 225, 232 Ark. 878, 1960 Ark. LEXIS 511 (Ark. 1960).

Opinion

Ed. F. McFaddin, Associate Justice.

This appeal challenges tbe judgment of the Garland Circuit Court, which ordered appellant, Joe Campbell, dismissed from the police force of the City of Hot Springs. The governing statute on civil service trials is § 19-1605.1, Ark. Stats., as amended by Act No. 326 of 1949; and one of the recent cases involving this statute is City of Little Rock v. Newcomb, 219 Ark. 74, 239 S. W. 2d 750.

Because of several complaints from citizens the Civil Service Commission of the City of Hot Springs notified Joe Campbell (appellant) that he was reduced from the rank of lieutenant to the grade of patrolman. In accordance with the previously cited statute, Mr. Campbell requested and obtained a trial before the Civil Service Commission, where the City was represented by the City Attorney and Mr. Campbell was represented by his own attorney. Evidence was introduced as to a number of incidents involving Mr. Campbell, one of which will be hereinafter detailed in Topic II. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Civil Service Commission reinstated Mr. Campbell to the rank of lieutenant. The City Attorney of Hot Springs appealed to the Circuit Court to reverse the order of reinstatement made by the Commission. After Mr. Campbell’s motion to dismiss the appeal (subsequently to be discussed in Topic I, infra) had been overruled, the Circuit Court tried the case de novo on the transcript of evidence heard before the Civil Service Commission, together with additional evidence ore tenus (§ 19-1605.1, Ark. Stats.); and entered a judgment discharging Mr. Campbell from the police force of the City of Hot Springs. To reverse that judgment, Mr. Campbell prosecutes this appeal to this Court and urges the points herein treated.

I. The Appeal From The Civil Service Commission To The Circuit Court. In the Circuit Court Mr. Campbell filed an unverified motion to dismiss the appeal from the Civil Service Commission order, and claimed that the City Attorney did not have the right and power to prosecute such an appeal. Mr. Campbell admitted that Mr. Whittington was the City Attorney and had given due and timely notice of appeal, and that the said Act No. 326 of 1949 specifically provided for a right of appeal by the City; but Mr. Campbell insisted 1 that it was necessary for the City Council of Hot Springs to specifically authorize the City Attorney to appeal the case to the Circuit Court, and that no such specific action of the Council had been presented by Mr. Whittington.

The Circuit Court ruled that the case was properly appealed from the Commission to the Circuit Court; and in the state of the record before us, the Circuit Court was correct. It is true that § 19-1015 Ark. Stats, provides for the election of a City Attorney but does not prescribe his duties 2 in detail: rather, leaving it to the City Council to fix such duties. No ordinance of the City of Hot Springs was introduced in evidence in this case fixing such duties of the City Attorney; and we do not take judicial notice of municipal ordinances. Lowe v. Ivy, 204 Ark. 623, 164 S. W. 2d 429; and City of Little Rock v. Griffin, 213 Ark. 465, 210 S. W. 2d 915, and cases there cited. So we have no evidence that the City Attorney of Hot Springs did, or did not, have the right and power under the municipal ordinances to appeal this case from the Commission to the Circuit Court.

Mr. Whittington, however, as the admitted 3 City Attorney of Hot Springs, represented to the Circuit Court that he had the power to appeal the case; and his representation was not denied by affidavit. The leading case on the authority of an attorney to represent a client is that of Tally v. Reynolds, 1 Ark. 99, 31 Am. Dec. 737, wherein this Court said:

“. . . it is incumbent on the party undertaking to question the authority of the attorney representing his adversary, to show to the court by affidavit, facts sufficient to raise a reasonable presumption that the attorney is acting in the case without authority from the party he assumes to represent, then, and not until then, the attorney may be required to show his authority.” The above quoted language from Tally v. Reynolds is found practically verbatim in 5 Am. Jur. 308, “Attorneys at Law”, § 81. When Mr. Whittington appeared in the Circuit Court to prosecute the appeal of the City, his standing as an attorney at law, and an officer of the court, carried with it his presumed right to represent his client; and Mr. Campbell did not challenge that representation by affidavit. Therefore, Mr. Whittington’s authority was not sufficiently challenged; and the Circuit Court was correct in its ruling on this point.

II. The Correctness Of The Circuit Court Judgment. Mr. Campbell vigorously insists that the Circuit Court judgment was erroneous in ordering complete dismissal from the police force; but we find such insistence to be without merit. In the case at bar, the Circuit Court proceeded in strict adherence to our case of City of Little Rock v. Newcomb, 219 Ark. 71, 239 S. W. 2d 750, wherein we said:

“We conclude that the Legislature in enacting Act 326, supra, intended to provide for a de novo hearing by the circuit court on the record before the Commission and any additional competent testimony that either party might desire to introduce; and that this court should hear the matter de novo on the entire record before the circuit court, as in chancery cases.”

In the hearing before the Commission there was the matter of ownership of an automobile by Mr. Campbell, which automobile — it was claimed — had been used by persons committing a robbery. Mr. Campbell’s title certificate showed some replacement of names; but Mr. Campbell claimed that he purchased the car in the regular course of business and paid for it with money he had earned while working in off-hours at the Citizens’ Club. Here is a portion of his testimony before the Commission:

“Q. How much did you pay fo,r that automobile?
A. $250.00.
Q. How did you pay the $250.00?
A. In cash.
Q. Did you cash a check to get that money?
A. I certainly didn’t. I don’t have a checking account.
Q. Then where did you get $250.00 all of a sudden?
A. I made about $500.00 at the Citizens’ Club two or three months before, and that’s the last I had from that, and I made several more dollars in tips from taking some of them home, and someone up there one night handed me a fifty dollar bill just for being nice to him, and I certainly didn’t ask him for it. I made, I guess, between 6 and $700.00 up there, and it’s turned in on my Federal income too.”

The question of what kind of work Mr. Campbell was doing at the Citizens’ Club was not pursued before the Commission; but when the case reached the Circuit Court, the matter was pursued; and the following occurred in the examination of one witness:

“Q.

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Bluebook (online)
341 S.W.2d 225, 232 Ark. 878, 1960 Ark. LEXIS 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campbell-v-city-of-hot-springs-ark-1960.