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Smith v. City of Napa6/30/2004
CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION
Defendant City of Napa (City) dismissed plaintiff Jeffrey Smith from its fire department after he failed remedial tests of his competency at required skills. On the effective date of his dismissal, he filed an application for a disability retirement. (Gov. Code, § 21150 et seq.) While his disability application was pending, the City Council affirmed the appeal of his dismissal. Defendant Board of Administration of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) eventually denied the disability claim, citing Haywood v. American River Fire Protection Dist. (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 1292 (Haywood), because the plaintiff no longer had an employment relationship with the City.
The plaintiff filed this petition for a writ of mandate to direct the defendants to consider the merits of his application for a disability retirement. As the plaintiff failed to make a timely request for a statement of decision, the superior court summarily denied the petition.
In the published part of this opinion, we reject his criticisms of the Haywood holding as dictum extraneous to its ratio decidendi and as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent. We also explain an oft-repeated qualification in Haywood that its ruling does not apply to a dismissal that "preempts" an otherwise valid claim for disability retirement. (67 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1297, 1306, 1307.) Contrary to the belief of the defendants, it does not refer only to a dismissal intended to thwart a claim for disability retirement, because a dismissal for cause cannot defeat an employee's matured right to a disability retirement antedating the event providing cause for the dismissal. The plaintiff, however, does not qualify for this restated exception to Haywood. We reject the remainder of his arguments in the unpublished portion of the Discussion. We will affirm the judgment.
Standard of Review
In cases such as this, involving the fundamental vested rights of a plaintiff, the superior court exercises independent review of the administrative record to determine if the weight of the evidence supports the findings in the agency decision, and a plaintiff is entitled to a statement of decision upon timely request. (Kazensky v. City of Merced (1998) 65 Cal.App.4th 44, 51, 67.) The scope of our review, however, is limited to verifying that substantial evidence supports the trial court's findings. (Id. at p. 52.) If a plaintiff fails to make a timely request for a statement of decision, we then must infer any finding to uphold the judgment that has substantial evidence in support in the administrative record. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 632, 634; Hall v. Bureau of Employment Agencies (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 482, 496; cf. In re Marriage of Arceneaux (1990) 51 Cal.3d 1130, 1133-1134 [similar rule for a failure to file objections to proposed statement of decision].) Contrary to the plaintiff's apparent belief, we may not impeach the trial court's ultimate judgment with its remarks at the hearing on the petition or in announcing its ruling from the bench. (Yarrow v. State of California (1960) 53 Cal.2d 427, 438; In re Marriage of Ditto (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 643, 646-647.) Our course through the administrative record is therefore targeted at the substantial evidence supporting the CalPERS decision, which we presume the trial court sustained on independent review.
One other factor affects our review of the record. The plaintiff never obtained judicial review of the decision of the City Council sustaining his dismissal. Contrary to the belief of the trial court, a formal judicial ruling on the plaintiff's petition is not a necessary event, the absence of which is chargeable to the def
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