VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Even though the city did not dispute their allegations of cheating and impropriety involving a captain’s exam, a Virginia Beach judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by four firefighters who took the test.

David Scherrer, Richard Irving, Alexander Wazlak III, and Mark Bayly were all master firefighters when they took the captain’s exam in May 2017.

At first the four men filed a grievance with the city personnel board, saying the battalion chief who conducted the test, William Reynolds, disclosed confidential information about the test to two of the candidates. The board ruled against them.

Then they decided to sue the city to have the the test results discarded, and wanted the city to conduct a new test.

The facts were not in dispute, and the city’s assistant attorney agreed in court Monday that cheating took place. But Judge James C. Lewis said he lacked jurisdiction in the case and dismissed the lawsuit.

“I in no way condone what happened here,” Lewis said during his ruling, and then told the four firefighters “I understand your grievance.”

Reynolds has since been demoted, and so has one of the two test candidates who benefited from his information, Nena Myers. The other, Ronson Carr, is now a captain with the department.

The attorney for the plaintiffs, Andrea Ruege, says she will see if her clients have any other possible avenue for appeal.

“It’s frustrating because the judge has admitted there was a wrong, but we can’t have any correction or any remedy to that.”

Bill Bailey is the firefighters’s union representative with the Virginia Beach Professional Firefighters Association.

“(We want) to try to restore integrity to the promotional process and highlight the failure of the city to conduct a fair and unbiased promotional process. I don’t think there’s any deterrent to keep this from happening again.”