Monroe v. Trustees of the California State Colleges

491 P.2d 1105, 6 Cal. 3d 399, 99 Cal. Rptr. 129, 1971 Cal. LEXIS 228
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1971
DocketL. A. 29926
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 491 P.2d 1105 (Monroe v. Trustees of the California State Colleges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Monroe v. Trustees of the California State Colleges, 491 P.2d 1105, 6 Cal. 3d 399, 99 Cal. Rptr. 129, 1971 Cal. LEXIS 228 (Cal. 1971).

Opinions

[402]*402Opinion

TOBRINER, J.

In November 1950, Albert E. Monroe (hereinafter petitioner), then a tenured, full professor and Chairman of the Language Arts Division at San Francisco State College, was discharged from his teaching position solely on the basis of his refusal to sign the “Levering Oath,” a loyalty oath formerly embodied in section 3103 of the Government Code. In 1952 this court in Pockman v. Leonard (1952) 39 Cal.2d 676 [249 P.2d 267], upheld the Levering Oath in the face of a constitutional attack, but in 1967, in Vogel v. County of Los Angeles (1967) 68 Cal.2d 18 [64 Cal.Rptr. 409, 434 P.2d 961], we expressly overruled Pockman and concluded that the Levering Oath, proscribing public'employees’ mere membership in certain organizations, constituted an unconstitutional infringement of First Amendment rights.

One week after Vogel became final, Monroe wrote to the Trustees of the California State Colleges, respondent herein, requesting, in light of Vogel, reinstatement to his former position and restoration of lost salary and pension rights; the Trustees, acting without a hearing, refused to grant petitioner either reinstatement or the restoration of any financial benefits. Monroe then filed his petition in the instant action, seeking a writ of mandate to compel the Trustees (1) to reinstate him to his former position, (2) to restore his pension rights upon payment of his required contribution, and (3) to reimburse him for the difference between the salary he would have earned if he had not been discharged and the salary tie actually earned in other employment, a sum of $79,000. The trial court sustained a general demurrer to Monroe’s first amended petition with leave to amend, and upon petitioner’s failure to amend, entered an order dismissing Monroe’s petition; it is from that order that petitioner Monroe now appeals.

To support the order sustaining the general demurrer, the Trustees contend primarily that petitioner’s own pleading reveals on its face that the present action encounters the bar of the applicable statute of limitations, since its allegations demonstrate that Monroe’s discharge became final in the early 1950’s. As discussed more fully below, however, we have determined that although the statute of limitations does presently preclude an attack on petitioner’s initial discharge, the instant complaint attacks not only the propriety of the 1950 discharge but also the validity of the Trustees’ refusal to reinstate Monroe in 1968, after the Vogel decision. Insofar as the Trustees’ 1968 refusal to reinstate him constitutes the basis of petitioner’s suit, we conclude that this action, commenced in December 1968, was timely filed.

[403]*403Moreover, we hold that the allegations of the present pleadings establish petitioner’s right to reinstatement because they show that even after Vogel exposed the constitutional infirmity of the basis for his discharge the Trustees summarily denied reinstatement: they held no hearing on his petition nor did they render any finding on the question of whether any “cause” remained to justify Monroe’s continued forced separation from the state college system. Finally, we conclude that, although petitioner has properly set forth his right to reinstatement as of 1968, he does not establish the right to back pay or to the restoration of pension benefits which accrued between 1950 and 1968, because those incidental remedies could only flow from an invalidation of his initial discharge, and the statute of limitations has run on such a claim. Under the circumstances of the instant case, petitioner is entitled only to the restoration of pension rights obtained prior to his 1950 discharge and to back pay and pension benefits which have accrued since the Trustees’ refusal to reinstate him in 1968.

We begin our analysis with a review of the relevant facts. In determining the sufficiency of petitioner’s amended complaint against a demurrer, we must, of course, treat the demurrer as admitting all material facts properly pleaded. (Serrano v. Priest (1971) 5 Cal.3d 584, 591 [96 Cal.Rptr. 601, 487 P.2d 1241]; Daar v. Yellow Cab Co. (1967) 67 Cal.2d 695, 713 [63 Cal.Rptr. 724, 433 P.2d 732].) According to the amended complaint, until November 4, 1950, petitioner taught at San Francisco State College as a full professor, with tenure under the California state college system, serving as chairman of the college’s Language Arts Division. On November 4, 1950, Monroe suffered dismissal from his position solely because he would not sign the newly enacted state loyalty oath, the “Levering Oath”;1 petitioner’s refusal to sign the oath rested entirely on [404]*404his conscientious belief that the oath embodied an unconstitutional abridgement of academic freedom and his constitutional rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association.

In October 1952, while Monroe was duly challenging his discharge through the appropriate administrative channels, this court upheld the constitutionality of the Levering Oath in the case of Pockman v. Leonard (1952) 39 Cal.2d 676 [249 P.2d 267]. Thereafter the State Personnel Board sustained Monroe’s dismissal on September 11, 1953. Reasoning that resort to the judiciary at that time would obviously be futile in light of the then-recent Pockman decision, Monroe did not challenge the State Personnel Board’s affirmance of his dismissal in the courts.

On December 21, 1967, however, in Vogel v. County of Los Angeles (1967) 68 Cal.2d 18 [64 Cal.Rptr. 409, 434 P.2d 961], this court concluded that the Levering Oath was unconstitutional and expressly overruled our earlier Pockman decision; Vogel became final on March 20, 1968. On March 26, 1968, petitioner wrote to the Trustees of the California State Colleges, requesting (1) that he be reinstated to his position, (2) that his pension rights be restored upon his payment of the requisite contribution to the pension fund, and (3) that he be reimbursed for the difference between the salary he would have earned if he had not been dismissed and the salary he actually earned in other employment. The Trustees declined either to reinstate petitioner or to authorize the restoration of pension rights and the reimbursement of back pay. On May 7, 1968, petitioner filed with the State Board of Control his claim for the differential in back pay, some $79,000, as well as his claim for the restoration of pension benefits; these claims were rejected a month later, on June 18, 1968. On December 18, 1968, Monroe filed his initial petition for writ of mandate in the instant action.

In addition to describing the foregoing chronology of events, Monroe’s pleading alleges that the state college system would not be burdened by his reinstatement because of a current shortage of teachers with petitioner’s professional qualifications; the petition asserts that no person will be required to be dismissed or demoted to accommodate Monroe’s reinstatement. Petitioner further alleges that over the years not more than 15 persons throughout the state have been dismissed for refusing to sign the Levering Oath, and that, as a result, the possible financial burden to the state, in the event of a ruling fully favorable to his position, would not exceed $500,000.

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Bluebook (online)
491 P.2d 1105, 6 Cal. 3d 399, 99 Cal. Rptr. 129, 1971 Cal. LEXIS 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/monroe-v-trustees-of-the-california-state-colleges-cal-1971.