OPINION ISSUED JULY 3, 1986

ROBERT B. MORRISON
VS.
DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES

(CC-85-206)

Claimant appeared in person.
Robert D. Pollitt, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

PER CURIAM:

Claimant Robert B. Morrison alleges that the sum of $2,989.50, plus
interest, is owing to him
with reference to his employment by the respondent, the Department of
Motor Vehicles. On
November 1, 1980, then Commissioner Joseph Condry had advised him of a
salary increase of
$43.00 per month. The salary increase was processed and reflected in the
payroll and in a check
issued for the November 1 to November 15, 1980 pay period. However, the
salary increase
had been, in the meantime, disapproved. The check was not given to the
claimant but was
redeposited. A supplementary payroll was prepared for the period, and a
payroll check given to
the claimant for a salary which did not include the salary increase. Nor
did his subsequent salary
checks include any increase until salary increases of July 1, 1981 and
July 1, 1984. His
employment by respondent was terminated, by his resignation, effective
October 16, 1984.

Claimant contends that the salary increase in question was not properly
taken away from him;
that he is entitled to the additional $43.00 per month for the months of
his continued employment
from November 1, 1980, plus interest.

The evidence disclosed that on or about November 12, 1980, Virginia L.
Roberts replaced
Joseph Condry as Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles. She
testified that, upon
assuming office, she had found on her desk an envelope containing forms
which indicated a
disapproval, by the Department of Finance and Administration, of
personnel actions pertaining to
three employees, one being the salary increase of the claimant; that she
then caused the
supplementary payroll to be prepared; that she was not the person who
disapproved the salary
increase of the claimant.

Lowell D. Basford, acting director of the West Virginia Civil Service
System, testified that in
November of 1980 the claimant was an exempt employee, not covered under
the civil service
regulations, simply serving at the will and pleasure of the Commissioner
since claimant's rehiring
and reclassification in 1977.

It appears to the Court that the issue, as to the manner in which the
claimant was denied the
salary increase, is moot. At the conclusion of claimant's evidence, the
respondent moved the
Court to dismiss the action upon several grounds, one of which was to
the effect that a two-year
statute of limitations barred the action. Claimant's Notice of Claim was
filed May 22, 1985,
about four and a half years after November 16, 1980, the date when the
wrong, if in fact there
was a wrong, was committed. The two-year statute of limitations, stated
in West Virginia Code
55-2-12, is applicable. (Shillingburg v. Railroad Maintenance Authority,
CC-85-104, Order
entered November 15, 1985) This Court is prohibited from taking
jurisdiction of any claim
barred by such a limitation (W.Va. Code 14-2-21). Accordingly,
respondent's motion to dismiss
is sustained.


This claim is dismissed.

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