Request By:
Ms. Connie Redmon
Administrative Assistant
City of Richmond
P.O. Box 250
Richmond, Kentucky 40475
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
In OAG 81-426, which was written in response to a question you submitted, this office concluded that where the right of a fireman's widow to pension benefits from a city of the third class had been terminated because of her remarriage, but the remarriage was subsequently annulled, the pension rights held by her prior to the remarriage should be restored. Your most recent letter states that the subsequent marriage was not annulled but was in fact terminated by a decree of dissolution (a divorce) .
You state that the city of Richmond operates its policemen's and fire fighters' pension fund pursuant to KRS 95.520 to 95.620 and you now ask whether the pension benefits formerly received by the fireman's widow should be resumed after her remarriage was terminated by a divored.
The specific question you have raised is not covered by the applicable pension statutes as KRS 95.550(1)(c) merely provides for the payment of a pension to the "widow" while "unmarried." Black's Law Dictionary (4th Ed.), p. 1771, defines a "widow" as "a woman whose husband is dead and who has not remarried. "
In 70 C.J.S., Pensions, § 4(b), the following appears:
"Except where otherwise expressly provided by statute, the remarriage of a woman receiving a pension as a widow of a pensioner terminates her right to the pension thereafter, although she divorces her second husband or her second husband dies, and although the second marriage was illegal when she did not repudiate it or when she procured its dissolution by divorce instead of having it annulled for illegality . . . ."
The Court held in part in
Alabama Pension Commission v. Morris, 242 Ala. 110, 4 So.2d 896 (1941), that where a Confederate soldier's widow married another Confederate soldier entitled to a pension, but she was divorced from him, the widow was not entitled to a pension as the second husband's "widow" after his death nor was she entitled to a pension as the widow of the first husband since her remarriage precluded her from claiming a pension as the first husband's widow.
In 60 Am.Jr.2d, Pensions and Retirement Funds, § 59, it is stated:
"A remarriage of a wife entitled to a pension as the widow of a pensioner has generally been held to terminate her pension rights thereafter, although some cases reach a contrary result under the view that statutory use of the term 'widow' refers to the person rather than to the marital status. An express provision in the pension statute as to whether or not a remarriage terminates a widow's pension rights is, of course, determinative of the question."
See also the annotation in 85 ALR 2d 242, 246, where the writer states: "Where a wife receiving or entitled to a pension as the widow of a pensioner validly remarried another man, it has generally been held that her right to the benefit thereafter is terminated by the remarriage. "
Although we cannot find any reported Kentucky case dealing with the question you have presented and the pension statutes under which your city is operating do not answer the question, it is our opinion, reflecting the general rule, that when not specifically provided for by statute, the remarriage of a woman receiving a pension as the widow of a pensioner terminates her right to that pension thereafter, even though she subsequently divorces her second husband.