16 A.2d 1 | Pa. | 1940
Harry S. Carey contends on this appeal that he was dismissed illegally from his position as chief of police of the City of Altoona. The writ of alternative mandamus which he obtained in order to secure reinstatement was quashed by the court below.
Carey became a member of the police force as a patrolman in 1924, in the same year he was promoted to the rank of sergeant, in 1926 he became a lieutenant, in 1931 a captain, and on December 31, 1937, chief of police. By an ordinance of the city council passed in 1931 it was provided that the bureau of police should be composed of a chief, a captain, three lieutenants, three sergeants, a detective, and fifty-four patrolmen. The salary of the chief was fixed at $2,400 a year, that of each of the lieutenants at $1,920 a year. On January 15, 1940, an ordinance was passed providing for the reorganization of the bureau and enacting that it should be composed of four lieutenants, three sergeants and fifty-five patrolmen, the salary of each of the lieutenants to be, as theretofore, $1,920 per year; by the terms of this ordinance all previous ordinances or parts of ordinances conflicting with its provisions were repealed. On the day of its passage the mayor issued an order designating Carey as a lieutenant.
Carey claims that he was demoted for political reasons, no charges of any kind being preferred against him. Were it not for the 1940 ordinance he would be entitled to prove, if he could, that he was indeed the victim of politics, because section 4407 of the Third Class City Law of June 23, 1931, P. L. 932, provides that no employee should be removed or transferred for any political reasons whatever, and it was held in the case of Simmler v. Philadelphia,
It does not avail Carey to assert that the 1940 ordinance was enacted because of political considerations, that it was a mere subterfuge to effect his demotion and not honestly intended to reorganize the bureau. The reasons prompting the removal of an employee may be judicially investigated in order to ascertain whether they were such as are made illegal by statutory provisions, but where the office itself is abolished by legislative act or ordinance a court will not pry into the motives of the legislators who voted for its passage: Leary v.Philadelphia,
The decree of the court below quashing the writ of mandamus is affirmed.