Slavich v. Walsh

186 P.2d 35, 82 Cal. App. 2d 228, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1195
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 4, 1947
DocketCiv. 13626
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 186 P.2d 35 (Slavich v. Walsh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Slavich v. Walsh, 186 P.2d 35, 82 Cal. App. 2d 228, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1195 (Cal. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

PETERS, P. J.

The three petitioners, who are the clerk and two deputy clerks of the Municipal Court of San Francisco, on their own behalf and in behalf of some 83 other deputy clerks, seek by this proceeding in mandamus to compel respondents, the members of the Civil Service Commission of San Francisco and its secretary, to approve for transmittal to respondent controller the payrolls for the clerk and deputy clerks of the municipal court covering the period subsequent to the 18th of September, 1947. Such submission and approval are required under the provisions of the city charter before the controller may issue pay warrants.

The respondents’ refusal to act is based on the fact that the proposed payrolls for the period subsequent to September 18, 1947, are predicated upon salaries fixed by the state Legislature in 1947 by statute, which salaries are in excess of *231 those fixed in the annual salary ordinance of the city. It is the contention of respondents that the attempt by the Legislature to fix these salaries by statute in 1947 was and is void.

At its 1947 session the Legislature enacted chapter 1113, Statutes of 1947, which added section 6a to the Municipal Court Act of 1925. (2 Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 5238.) That statute is entitled: “An act authorizing the establishment of municipal courts, prescribing their constitution, regulation, government, procedure and jurisdiction, and providing for the election and appointment of the judges, clerks and other attaehés of such courts, their terms of office, qualification and compensation and for the selection of jurors therein.” By that statute chartered cities with a designated population are permitted to create such courts under certain conditions. San Francisco availed itself of this permission in 1929, and the Municipal Court of the City and County of San Francisco was created in 1930. Prior to the legislative enactment of 1947, section 6 of the Municipal Court Act applicable to cities of the first class, that being the classification of San Francisco, prescribed the salaries to be paid the judges, the clerk and the jury commissioner. Prior to 1947, section 6 also provided that the clerk might appoint “such other deputies and attaches as may bé provided for by the board of supervisors in the'annual salary ordinance.” As to the Los Angeles Municipal Court, sections 7, 7a, 7b and 7c of the Municipal Court Act for many years has fixed the salaries of the judges, clerk, marshal, referees, deputy clerks, assistant and deputy marshals and commissioners. In 1947, by chapter 1113, the state Legislature provided that the clerk might appoint some 85 deputy clerks, specifying in some instances the particular duties to be performed by certain of these deputies, and fixing the pay rates for the clerk and all of his deputies.

Prior to the enactment of chapter 1113, the respondent commission, acting pursuant to the quoted portion of section 6 which was superseded by chapter 1113, submitted to the board of supervisors a proposed salary ordinance for the fiscal year 1947-1948 which included salary rates for all positions paid out of city and county funds, including the clerk and deputy clerks of the municipal court. In all cases these proposed salaries were lower than those subsequently fixed by chapter 1113. The board of supervisors passed this ordinance and it became effective for the fiscal year in question. After the Legislature had passed, and the governor had signed, chapter 1113, but before it became effective, the board *232 of supervisors amended the appropriation ordinance to include the raises for these clerks as fixed by the state Legislature. Nevertheless, the secretary of the civil service commission has refused to approve the timerolls of the clerk and deputy clerks insofar as they are based on the state statute, and the controller refuses to draw a payroll or issue warrants based thereon.

An examination of the constitutional provision providing for the creation of municipal courts (art. VI, § 11, as amended in 1924), of the Municipal Court Act, and of the cases interpreting them, demonstrates to a certainty that the state Legislature has the power to fix the salaries of all officers and attachés of all municipal courts of the type provided in article VI, section 11, and that where the state has acted, the governing body of the city or city and county has no power at all over such salaries. It should be here mentioned that attached to the present petition are two opinions of the attorney general, two of the legislative counsel and two of the San Francisco city attorney (the latter now opposing the granting of the writ), all concluding that the state’s power is paramount over the salaries of the clerk and deputy clerks of the Municipal Court of San Francisco.

There is not here involved the proper interpretation of the so-called “home rule” provisions of the Constitution. While it is true that article XI, section 7%, of the Constitution refers to the power of a chartered city over “inferior” courts, and that section 8% of article XI, refers to the power of a chartered city over “municipal” courts, it is settled that neither section applies to the “municipal courts” provided for by article VI, section 11. (Kenyon v. Johnson, 97 Cal.App. 552 [276 P. 110]; Simpson v. Payne, 79 Cal.App. 780 [251 P. 324] ; see discussion 6 Cal.Jur. 10-Yr.Supp. p. 732 et seq.) The courts referred to in article VI, section 11, are courts of record inferior to the superior courts but superior to the “inferior” or “municipal” courts referred to in sections 7% and 8% of article XI.

Article VI, section 11, provides for the establishment of municipal courts in chartered cities having a population of 40,000 or more, provides how such courts might be created in such cities, and then provides: ‘ ‘ The legislature shall provide by general law for the constitution, regulation, government and procedure of municipal courts. . . . The manner in which, the time at which, the term for which the judges, clerks and other attachés of municipal courts shall be elected *233 or appointed, the number and qualifications of said judges and of the clerks and other attaches, except as such matters are otherwise provided in this article, shall be prescribed by the legislature. The compensation of the justices or judges of all courts of record, shall be fixed and the payment thereof prescribed by the legislature.”

Under this section it is quite apparent that, except for the sole question as to whether a municipal court shall exist in the municipality, the complete control over municipal courts is placed by the Constitution in the Legislature and not in the city or city and county. The available ease law clearly so holds. In Simpson v. Payne, 79 Cal.App. 780 [251 P. 324], a clerk of the Municipal Court of Los Angeles brought mandamus to compel the county to issue a warrant on the basis of section 7 of the Municipal Court Act fixing his salary. The county maintained that he was only entitled to a lesser salary as fixed by the board of supervisors. The court pointedly held that the Legislature and not the chartered municipality had the constitutional power to fix the salaries to be paid clerks and attachés of the municipal court.

In Chambers v. Terry,

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Bluebook (online)
186 P.2d 35, 82 Cal. App. 2d 228, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slavich-v-walsh-calctapp-1947.