Civil Service, Heads of principal departments. Sealer of Weights and Measures. Words, "Principal departments."
The department of the sealer of weights and measures of the city of Cambridge, who in 1909 had under him two deputy sealers, whose duties were as set forth in R.L.c. 62, §§ 19-32, and who, according to an ordinance of the city, was to "have general control and supervision of all the public scales in the city, and . . . annually . . . make a full report of all matters pertaining to his department with an inventory of all property of the city in his charge," was not a "principal department" of the city, and therefore the sealer was not exempted from the operation of the rules of the civil service commission by the provision of R.L.c. 19, § 9, which so exempts "heads of principal departments . . . of a city"; and since, by the rules of the commission, "sealers and deputy sealers of weights and measures" belong to the classified service and whenever there is a vacancy in such service the appointing officer must make requisition upon the commission for the names of eligible persons, one whom the mayor of Cambridge appointed to the office of head of the "sealer of weights and measures department" without making requisition upon the commission, was not entitled to that office.
LORING, J.
It is provided by R.L.c. 19, § 9, that "heads of principal departments of the Commonwealth or of a city" (among others) shall be exempt from the civil service rules.
The reason for the exemption is plain: The selection of the heads of those departments of the Commonwealth or of a city which correspond to the cabinet officers of the President of the United States, stands on a different footing from that of subordinates and clerks. See in this connection Attorney General v. Trehy, 178 Mass. 186; Attorney General v. Douglass, 195 Mass. 35.
It is not the head of every department of a city who is within this exemption. The exemption is confined to the "heads of principal departments." There are some twenty-six departments created by the ordinances of the city here in question. They are not all of them "principal departments."
In our opinion the "sealer of weights and measures department" is not one of the "principal departments" of this city. The duty to be performed by that department is a ministerial one, namely, to determine the accuracy of scales and measures. See Moneyweight Scale Co. v. McBride, 199 Mass. 503, 514. The persons who make up this department are three in number. In no sense is it a "principal" department of this city.
The entry must be
Judgment of ouster.