Who Has Jurisdiction to Determine Whether a City Employee is At-Will or Not?

In a decision filed July 30, 2009, the Utah Court of Appeals said that the proper place to appeal a city’s employee appeal board’s determination of the at-will status of one of its employees is a state district court. In Pearson v. South Jordan Employee Appeals Board, the Court stated that despite relevant statutory language authorizing a direct appeal to the Court of Appeals from any “final action or order of the appeal board,” because the appeal board did not have statutory authority to review the determination of the at-will status of the employee, the only appeal proper venue to appeal that determination was the district court under the authority of a different statute.

What does this mean? It means if an appeals board determines that an employee is at-will, the employee must first appeal that decision to the district court. However, if the appeals board determines that an employee is not at-will and the employee loses his underlying appeal to the board on its merits, the employee must file the appeal with the Utah Court of Appeals.