Munroe v. Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Works)
Filed April 16, 2009, publication ordered May 13, 2009
Cite as 2009 SOS 2712

Appeal Rejected as Untimely

The case stemmed from an employment dispute between Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (DPW) and Massie Munroe who worked as an associate civil engineer for the agency. The issue arose from Munroe's alleged behavior in the workplace. In this case, the court tried to resolve the issue on whether the filing of the writ of petition and appeal was proper (timely) or not.

The DPW notified Munroe that she had the right to appeal and request for a hearing before the Civil Service Commission (CSC). Munroe was also informed that she had 15 business days within which to appeal from the time the notice was mailed or given to her by the CSC. The notice indicated that the notice of appeal should be sent to CSC.

Munroe’s attorney, F. Bari Nejadpour (Nejadpour), received and signed the notice. Nejadpour allegedly sent two letters to the CSC, through Noemi Ferguson, disagreeing to Munroe’s termination. Subsequently, the appeal was rejected as it was filed out of time.

Munroe petitioned for a writ of administrative mandate directing CSC to hear the appeal. Nejadpour alleged that Ferguson accepted the service of Munroe’s appeal on behalf of DPW. Nejadpour claimed that a copy of the notice was also mailed to Keisha Lakey as Ferguson indicated that Lakey was the appropriate party to receive the notice on behalf of DPW.

The trial court granted the petition on the ground that the late request for an appeal constitute a good cause for an extension of time to file an appeal. On appeal, the DPW contended that Munroe’s appeal was untimely. Nejadpour’s error of calculating deadlines was not a good cause sufficient to grant an extension of time.

The appeal court ruled that the trial court erred in granting the writ of petition directing the CSC to accept the appeal. The letter sent by Nejadpour to Ferguson was not the proper way of filing for a request for filing an appeal. Moreover, the failure to send a request for hearing to CSC was not a good cause for granting an extension of time.