finding that allowing discharged firefighters to apply for disability pensions would disrupt the statutory pension scheme
How later courts described this case
- finding that allowing discharged firefighters to apply for disability pensions would disrupt the statutory pension scheme
- interpreting provisions of the firefighter’s pension code as requiring that an applicant be employed as a firefighter at the time he seeks disability benefits
- “[T]he ‘contractual relationship’ is governed by the actual terms of the Pension Code at the time the employee becomes a member of the pension system.” (Emphasis added.)
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
JUSTICE WARD dissenting:
I consider that the statutory interpretation of the majority is overly restrictive and that the appellate court properly analyzed the statute’s intendment. Under the majority’s narrow and literal view, eligibility for a line-of-duty disability pension is restricted to actively serving firemen. One who has been discharged from service has no pension disability rights even though, under the majority’s view, the disability did not manifest itself until the fireman had been separated from municipal service. I do not consider that such a result was intended by the legislature.
Judging from the record, the position of the appellants appears to be something less than admirable. The plaintiff served as a paid on-call fireman from September 1977 until June 1, 1982, when he was appointed to the position of a probationary fireman-paramedic. He began contributions to the pension fund at the time he began work as a probationary fireman. It appears he was on duty in October 1982 when he received injuries to his spine, requiring his being placed in December 1982 on full physical-disability leave. The following May he was informed that in February 1983 his probationary status had been extended for a period to be equal to the time he would be on physical-disability leave. Inexplicably, from the record, on May 26, 1983, he was informed that effective that date he was no longer a member of the department.
That the plaintiff did not apply for a duty-related pension until almost a year later appears to be without significance, as he states that he was entitled to full salary for a year under an applicable statute (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 70, par. 91). Too, as the appellate court noted, the Illinois Pension Code does not prescribe a specific time period within which an employee must apply for a pension.
I cannot agree with the majority’s holding that an applicant for a duty-related disability pension must in the literal sense of the word be a fireman both at the time of injury and at the time of application for disability benefits.