Wallace

This is an appeal by petitioner Wallace from a judgment denying his petition for a writ of mandate whereby he sought to annul an order of the State Personnel Board, referred to herein as the Board, and be restored to his former civil service position with the State of California.

From 1949 until he was discharged in 1955, petitioner had been a permanent civil service employee of the Division of Architecture of the Department of Public Works of the State of California, which we shall refer to as the Department, and since 1951 had been employed in the capacity of senior electrical engineer assigned to the Sacramento office of the Department. While at Sacramento his duties, which required substantial travel of from two to four thousand miles per month, included inspecting electrical installations in state construction projects, interpreting plans and specifications and clarifying misunderstandings relative thereto, inspecting installations with respect to whether or not the work was proceeding according to plan, rendering decisions as to intent of design, making final inspections and preparing all necessary reports relative thereto.

On August 1, 1955, petitioner was…