Casdorph v. Dept. of Energy
Annotate this Case
January 1993 Term
___________
No. 21419
___________
RICHARD A. CASDORPH,
Petitioner/Appellant Below, Appellee,
v.
WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
and WEST VIRGINIA DIVISION OF PERSONNEL,
Respondents Below, Appellants
_______________________________________________________
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Kanawha County
Honorable Herman G. Canady, Jr., Judge
Civil Action No. 90-AA-142
REVERSED AND DECISION OF
LOWER TRIBUNAL REINSTATED
_______________________________________________________
Submitted: January 19, 1993
Filed: March 12, 1993
Victor A. Barone
Hurt & Barone
Charleston, West Virginia
Attorney for the Appellee
Michael J. Basile
Senior Assistant Attorney General
Charleston, West Virginia
Attorney for the Appellants
This Opinion was delivered PER CURIAM.
SYLLABUS BY THE COURT
"A final order of the Civil Service Commission based upon
a finding of fact will not be reversed by this Court upon appeal
unless it is clearly wrong." Syllabus, Billings v. Civil Service
Commission, 154 W.Va. 688, 178 S.E.2d 801 (1971).
Per Curiam:
This is an appeal by the West Virginia Division of
Environmental Protection and the West Virginia Division of
Personnel from an order entered by the Circuit Court of Kanawha
County in an employee grievance proceeding. The circuit court held
that Richard A. Casdorph, an employee of the West Virginia Division
of Environmental Protection, had been improperly demoted and
directed that he be restored to his former position. The court
also awarded Mr. Casdorph back pay, court costs, and attorney fees.
In the present proceeding, the appellants claim that Mr. Casdorph
was properly reclassified pursuant to a meaningful and bona fide
reorganization and that the circuit court erred in holding that he
was improperly demoted. After reviewing the record and the
questions presented, this Court agrees with the appellants'
assertions. Accordingly, the judgment of the Circuit Court of
Kanawha County is reversed.
Richard A. Casdorph, whose grievances are at the heart of
the present controversy, was employed by the State of West Virginia
in 1965 and has worked for the State since that date. Prior to
1988, he served primarily in civil service positions. In April,
1988, he was promoted to the non-civil service position of Director
of the Division of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation. His
salary in the new position was in excess of $52,000.00.
During the 1988 general election, the Governor under whom
Mr. Casdorph had been promoted was defeated. After the election,
the Commissioner of the Division of Energy, who had jurisdiction of
the Division of Energy in which Mr. Casdorph worked, transferred
Mr. Casdorph to a protected civil service position as "Energy
Administrator IV" in the Division of Abandoned Mine Lands and
Reclamation at a salary of over $48,000.00.
In early 1989, the newly elected Governor assumed office,
and a newly appointed commissioner conducted an administrative
review of the operations of the Division of Energy. After parts of
that study had been completed, the new Commissioner of Energy began
a reorganization of the Division of Abandoned Mine Lands and
Reclamation.
The study of the Division of Abandoned Mine Lands and
Reclamation showed that three of its four sections were headed by
employees classified as "Energy Administrator II". The study
further showed that the fourth section was headed by Mr. Casdorph,
who was classified as "Energy Administrator IV". In the view of
the new Commissioner of Energy, the study revealed that Mr.
Casdorph had been placed in a protected position by the outgoing
Governor's Energy Commissioner in the closing days of the
administration at an over-classified status, while persons in
parallel positions were maintained at a level status. The
Commissioner of the Department of Energy reexamined Mr. Casdorph's
position and concluded that his job duties resembled those of an
"Energy Administrator III" rather than a "Energy Administrator II"
or "Energy Administrator IV". As a consequence, Mr. Casdorph was
eventually reclassified or, in more common parlance, demoted to a
Level III position.
To effectuate the reclassification, the Commissioner of
the Division of Energy completed a civil service personnel form WV-11. On the form the Commissioner placed an "X" in the type of
change box for demotion and added the abbreviation "DMWP", which
stood for "demotion without prejudice". The form was then sent to
the Department of Finance and Administration and the Division of
Personnel as an official notification of the action. By letter
dated June 9, 1989, Mr. Casdorph was notified by letter of his
reclassification, but the letter incorrectly stated that the action
had been taken with prejudice.
After learning that he had been reclassified to a lower
level, Mr. Casdorph instituted action under West Virginia's civil
service grievance procedures established by W.Va. Code, 29-6A-1, et
seq. In the first stage of that procedure, the Director of the
Division of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation stated that the
reduction in classification was ". . . due to the reorganization,
it was necessary to demote you into the appropriate classification
. . ." The Director also indicated that the action brought Mr.
Casdorph into closer alignment with peers who performed comparable
duties.
Mr. Casdorph, who was unhappy with the result of the
Level I decision, sought a Level II hearing. At the conclusion of
that hearing, the Commissioner of the Department of Energy upheld
the demotion and stated:
[I]n comparing the various duties performed by
each of the Administrators, including yours, I
felt that it was necessary to correct this
imbalance. Subsequently, you were demoted and
placed into the appropriate classification and
salary range.
Mr. Casdorph appealed this decision, again pursuant to
the Civil Service procedures, and by letter dated October 25, 1989,
the Level III grievance evaluator stated that "the Department of
Energy's actions were justifiable and followed proper procedures."
The letter also indicated that Mr. Casdorph's duties were
comparable to those of others who worked within the Department in
charge of specific sections. The letter concluded that Mr.
Casdorph's allegations that he had been demoted for prejudicial
reasons were unsubstantiated. It also found that Mr. Casdorph's
allegation that the actions taken against him were the result of
political retaliation were not proved by a preponderance of the
evidence.
Mr. Casdorph appealed the Level III decision, and a Level IV hearing was held before the State Employees Grievance Board.
The State Employees Grievance Board, after conducting hearings,
referred to the demotion as one with prejudice and found that there
was clearly no disciplinary intent on the part of the Division of
Energy. Under these circumstances, the grievance examiner found
that the demotion was without prejudice but also found that Mr.
Casdorph had failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that
the demotion was without cause.
Mr. Casdorph appealed the Level IV decision to the
Circuit Court of Kanawha County. No hearings were conducted before
the circuit court, but the circuit court reviewed the record
previously developed in the case. After reviewing the record, the
circuit court found that it did not appear that the Department
suffered monetary difficulty which necessitated a reorganization.
The circuit court also found that there was no work necessity for
the reorganization and that the applicable Civil Service
regulations define a demotion "without prejudice" as "a change in
classification of an employee to a lower classification or a
reduction of pay due to work necessity." The circuit court noted
that no one else was demoted during the reorganization and that
evidence showed that no one was reassigned or transferred or laid
off. The circuit court concluded that:
Although the Department maintained and sought
to prove certain reorganizational changes
necessitated Appellant's demotion, the record
indicates no "meaningful" reorganization
actually occurred, especially in light of the
fact that no position was materially or
adversely affected other than that of
Appellant. The testimony of the various
department heads was to the effect that they
experienced no material changes.
The circuit court further concluded that:
Having failed to demonstrate any "meaningful"
reorganization, any demotion of the Appellant
would have to have been a demotion "with
prejudice", with the burden on the Department
to show the demotion was "for cause". The
record is devoid of any evidence to support
the conclusion that Appellant was demoted "for
cause."
Under the circumstances, the court concluded that the appellant was
entitled to be restored to the position held by him prior to his
demotion, that he was entitled to back pay from the effective date
of his demotion to the date of his reinstatement, including all
salary increases to which he would have been entitled had he not
been demoted, and that he was entitled to court costs and attorney
fees.
It is from the circuit court's ruling that the West
Virginia Division of Environmental Protection and the West Virginia
Division of Personnel now appeal.
On appeal, the appellants argue that the Division of
Energy incurred a meaningful and bona fide reorganization and that
Mr. Casdorph was properly reclassified.
This Court has indicated generally that it will not
reverse the finding of a civil service commission unless the
finding is clearly wrong. The rule specifically, as stated in the
syllabus of Billings v. Civil Service Commission, 154 W.Va. 688,
178 S.E.2d 801 (1971), indicates that:
A final order of the Civil Service
Commission based upon a finding of fact will
not be reversed by this Court upon appeal
unless it is clearly wrong.
In the case of West Virginia Department of Health v. West
Virginia Civil Service Commission, 178 W.Va. 237, 358 S.E.2d 798
(1987), this Court, reasoning under this general syllabus point,
indicated that when it could not find that a civil service
commission's ruling was clearly wrong, a circuit court's decision
reversing the civil service commission's ruling would, in turn, be
reversed and this Court would affirm the civil service commission's
ruling. See also Randolph County Board of Education v. Scalia, 182
W.Va. 289, 387 S.E.2d 524 (1989); West Virginia Department of
Health v. Mathison, 171 W.Va. 693, 301 S.E.2d 783 (1983); and
Vosberg v. Civil Service Commission of West Virginia, 166 W.Va.
488, 275 S.E.2d 640 (1981).
It appears from the record of the present case that Mr.
Casdorph, during the administration of Governor Moore, held an
appointed political position as Director of Abandoned Lands and
Reclamation and that just prior to the change in administrations he
was returned to a civil service protected position as an Energy
Administrator for a section head within the division which he had
formerly headed. At the time of his return to the civil service
system, Mr. Casdorph was continued at a salary of $48,000.00 per
year, whereas heads of other sections within the Abandoned Mine
Lands and Reclamation Division were, according to the record, paid
$34,000.00, $36,000.00, and $37,000.00 per year, respectively. Mr.
Casdorph, in effect, was earning some $11,000.00 per year more than
the next highest paid person in a comparable position.
At the time of Mr. Casdorph's classification, one of the
sections of the division was eliminated, and the Emergency
Reclamation Program was transferred to the area which Mr. Casdorph
headed. Because of the transfer, Mr. Casdorph was reclassified at
an Administrator III position, a position higher than that of the
three comparable administrators within the division, and Mr.
Casdorph's salary was set at $40,000.00 per year, which was
considerably higher than the $37,000.00 per year paid to the next
highest paid administrator.
It appears to the Court that Mr. Casdorph's
reclassification was taken to make his duties coincide with his
position, and it appears that the Level IV State Employees
Grievance Board decision in essence found that the evidence
supported a finding that Mr. Casdorph had failed to show by a
preponderance of the evidence that the demotion was without cause.
In this Court's view, the Level IV grievance finding was
supported by substantial evidence, that evidence being that in
essence Mr. Casdorph was appointed to a position which did not
entail substantially more work than positions held by three other
individuals within his division. Under the circumstances, the
Court believes that a reorganization and an alteration of Mr.
Casdorph's classification position was appropriate to bring his
salary in line with his position and duties. Consequently, the
Court cannot find that the reorganization which resulted in Mr.
Casdorph's demotion was not a bona fide reorganization or that the
Level IV grievance proceeding findings were clearly wrong.
Under these circumstances, in line with the holding of
the Court in West Virginia Department of Health v. West Virginia
Civil Service Commission, supra, and Billings v. Civil Service
Commission, supra, this Court believes that it should reverse the
decision of the Circuit Court of Kanawha County and reinstate the
Level IV decision of the State Grievance Board.
For the reasons stated, the decision of the Circuit Court
of Kanawha County is reversed and the decision of the State
Employees Grievance Board is reinstated.
Reversed and decision of lower tribunal reinstated.
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