Opinion

Boston Retirement Board v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board

  • 340 Mass. 112
  • 162 N.E.2d 824
  • 1959 Mass. LEXIS 739
Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Filed
Dec 15, 1959
Status
Published
Author
Spalding
On the bench
Wilkins, Spalding, Williams, Counihan, Cutter
Cited by
8 cases
Authority
More cited than 84.5%

same result on similar facts

How later courts described this case

  • same result on similar facts
  • employee injured on employer’s premises while returning to work after lunch, not injured “while in the performance” of her duties

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Spalding, J.

The applicant, Lillian J. Mullins, a member of the State-Boston retirement system,

1

was employed as a matron at the city of Boston’s stadium at East Boston. On August 26, 1955, she fell in a hole on the premises of the stadium while returning from lunch and sustained the injuries from which has arisen this application for retirement for accidental disability. A medical panel of three phy

*113

sicians certified unanimously that her disability was likely to be permanent and that it was the “proximate result of the accident or hazard undergone on account of which the retirement is claimed.” The Boston retirement board denied the application on the ground that the injuries were not “the result of an accident sustained or hazard undergone during the performance of duty.” The applicant appealed to the contributory retirement appeal board, which reversed the decision of the Boston board. G. L. c. 32, § 16 (4). Upon a review under § 14 of G. L. c. 30A, the State administrative procedure act, the Superior Court affirmed the decision of the appeal board. The applicant was allowed to intervene (§14 £2]). The case comes to this court on the appeal of the Boston board (§ 15).

The only question presented for decision is whether the applicant was incapacitated “by reason of a personal injury sustained or a hazard undergone as a result of, and while in the performance of,” her duties. G. L. c. 32, § 7. The case of

Boston Retirement Board

v.

Contributory Retirement Appeal Board, ante,

109, is on all fours with the present case and is controlling. For the reasons set forth in that case the decree is reversed and a new decree is to be entered reversing the decision of the appeal board.

So ordered.

1

St. 1947, c. 520, § 1.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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