Wilson

Virginia Wilson petitions for a writ of mandate, seeking to compel the Board of Civil Service Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles, its members and general manager, to vacate an administrative determination that the petitioner lacks qualifications for two civil service positions by reason of her prior discharge from employment by the county of Los Angeles after she had refused to subscribe to a loyalty oath in 1948.

The petitioner made application in 1958 and in 1959 to the Civil Service Commission of the City of Los Angeles for employment as “senior clerk” and as “medical investigator,” respectively. Inquiry was made as to the petitioner’s former employment and her reasons for terminating such employments. In written response thereto she stated in each application that she had been employed by the county of Los Angeles and that in 1948 she had been “discharged for refusal to sign type of ‘loyalty’ oath in use by the County at said time.” Thereafter she received notices of and took written professional examinations for the positions for which she had applied. She prepared for and passed both examinations with high marks. She then appeared for an oral exami nation for the…