Commonwealth ex rel. v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 273 Pa. 332

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Employees—Dismissal—Cities of the first class —Act of June 25,1919, P. L. 581.</p> <p>1. Tbe legislature bas ample authority to determine tbe manner in which city employees may be dismissed.</p> <p>2. Subject to tbe limitations expressly imposed by statute, tbe proper executive officers may discharge tbeir employees.</p> <p>3. In cities of tbe first class, under tbe Act of June 25, 1919, P. L. 581, all that is necessary to discharge a classified employee by a bead of department, except in certain specified cases, is due notice of tbe charges made with tbe opportunity to answer within five days, followed by tbe filing with the civil service commission of copies of tbe written statement.</p> <p>4. What constitutes ample cause for removal within the limits fixed by tbe act must necessarily be largely a matter of discretion on the part of the head of the department. To be sufficient, however, the cause should be personal to the employee, not religious or political, and such as to render him unfit for the position he occupies.</p> <p>5. Where a classified employee is dismissed by a chief of department for failure to perform the duties of his office, a mere averment in his answer to the charge submitted to him, that he was dismissed for political reasons, does not make necessary a court proceeding to determine the correctness of such assertion.</p> <p>Mandamus — Answer—Traverse—Reply or plea — Default—Act of June 8, 1898, P. L. 8^6 — Practice, G. P.</p> <p>6. If a defendant appears in a mandamus suit brought under the Act of June 8, 1893, P. L. 346, and fails to answer, judgment of nil dicit or by default, may be entered, with the result that the averments of the plaintiff may be taken as true; but if an answer is filed and this is traversed, a reply or plea to the traverse is not required, if no attempt to set up new matter is made.</p> <p>7. Even if the joinder of issue was not deemed complete, the court could not of its own motion proceed to declare