82 Wash. 464 | Wash. | 1914
This is a proceeding in mandamus insti-. tuted by the relator in the superior court of King county, to have himself reinstated as garbage weigher in the sanitation department of the city of Seattle. From an adverse determination of his cause in the superior court, the relator appeals to this court.
The appellant was appointed as one of the garbage weighers shortly after the positions were created, and continued to hold it and perform the duties imposed thereby until February 1, 1913, when he was transferred to the position of “deckman,” a position connected with the disposal of garbage, which position he held until June 14, 1913, when he was separated from the civil service and from employment by the city, and placed upon the preferred register or waiting list. The superintendent of the department testified that the appellant was removed from the position of weighman because the weighing of garbage was unnecessary, and no sufficient appropriation had been made to meet the salary of the weighers; that he had not been continued as a deckman, because it was found that the services could be performed with a less number of men than were then being employed, and that economy required the lessening of the forces employed in the service of garbage removal.
It is true, the appellant contends that the position has not been abolished, that the labor of weighing garbage is still carried on by the city, and that he was discharged and others given his position; but we cannot so read the record. A position created by statute can be abolished indirectly as well as directly, and this position was indirectly abolished by the change in the system which rendered the services required thereby unnecessary, and by the failure to make an appropriation to pay for the services. Nor is the work of weighing garbage still being performed in the sense in which the appellant was employed to perform it. Such weighing as is now done is only occasional, and is done by the deckman for the purpose of keeping check on the amount of labor performed by the different employees in the several departments of the service. Nor do we think the appellant was discriminated against by the superintendent when he was selected for suspension from the service. His employment as deckman was subsequent to the employment of others in the same service, and while the civil service rules provide that the officer in laying off employees, must lay off those whom he deems least efficient, it is not a matter
The judgment is affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Mount, Parker, and Morris, JJ., concur.