Request By:
Thomas J. Roberts, Esq.
3001 West Cumberland Avenue
P.O. Box 69
Middlesboro, Kentucky 40965
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising questions about the city's police officers' retirement fund.
The chief of police of a city of the third class operating under the provisions of KRS 95.621 to 95.629 (Alternative Police and Firefighter's Pension Fund in Third Class Cities) is wondering about the acquisition of a vested interest in the plan. He seeks an opinion as to whether he may forfeit his pension plan benefits after 23 years with the police department and whether the city may deny him his retirement benefits for any type of misconduct including but not limited to misfeasance, nonfeasance or malfeasance.
KRS 95.623(1) provides in part that the board of trustees of the pension fund may make all necessary rules for its government in the discharge of its duties, and shall hear and decide all applications for benefits or pensions. KRS 95.624 (1) states in part that in cities of the third class, any member of the police department having served 20 years or longer in the police department may petition the board of trustees for retirement, and if his petition is granted the board may order paid to him monthly 50 percent of his monthly salary at the time of retirement.
In
City of Lexington v. Wilburn, Ky., 265 S.W.2d 777 (1954), the court considered statutory pension provisions similar to those set forth in the sections of KRS 95.623 and 95.624 mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The court said in part that the statutory pension provisions applicable in that case were not self-executing and the board of trustees of the pension fund had the authority to adopt rules and regulations to determine who were entitled to pension benefits.
In connection with the vesting of pension rights we direct your attention to OAG 81-318, copy enclosed. We said in part that once a person has fulfilled the requirement acquires pension and a pension has been vested rights in the pension fund and those rights and benefits can only be altered or abolished under certain specific statutory conditions.
Generally, a pension granted by a public authority is not a contractual obligation but a gratuitous allowance in the continuance of which the pensioner has no vested right. However, most jurisdictions concede that where any particular payment under a pension system has become due the pensioner has a vested right therein.
Moran v. Firemen's and Policemen's Pension Fund of New Jersey, 20 N.J. Misc. 479, 28 A.2d 885, 888 (1942).
The court, in
City of Louisville v. Board of Education of Louisville, 291 Ky. 7, 163 S.W.2d 23 (1942), said that a person has no vested right in a pension system until he becomes an actual beneficiary. In
Arnold v. Browning, 294 Ky. 164, 171 S.W.2d 239, 240 (1943), the court said that it is only when by terms of the act providing for the pension fund, the claimant is shown to have become entitled to the benefits that the right to such benefits becomes a vested right.
As to whether misconduct of the applicant may be utilized by the board of trustees of the pension fund to initially deny pension benefits, we direct your attention to 60 Am. Jur. 2d Pensions and Retirement Funds § 60 where the following appears:
"Whether misconduct constitutes sufficient grounds for the initial denial of pension to an applicant primarily entitled thereto depends in large measure upon the terms of the governing statute, ordinance, or regulation. Many courts hold that in the absence of any statutory provision on the subject, misconduct of one primarily entitled to receive a pension, even though disability or death resulted from such conduct, is not grounds for denying a pension to such person or his widow, children, or dependents, and a similar conclusion is reached by some courts where the misconduct of the employee is not of the type contemplated by the applicable enactment, although there are cases in which proved misconduct has been determinative against a claim for a pension. Statutory authority given to a pension board to adopt rules and regulations for its guidance in conformity with the statute gives the board no authority to adopt, in derogation of the statute which does not qualify the right to pension benefits, a rule which disqualifies for misconduct. "
You may also wish to examine an annotation in 76 ALR 2d 566 entitled, "Misconduct as affecting right to pension or retention of position in retirement system."
In
Policemen's and Firemen's Retirement Fund of the City of Newport v. Shields, Ky., 521 S.W.2d 82 (1975), the court said, "The rights of persons participating in a pension plan are governed entirely by the terms of the pension plan and the statutes under which it is operated." Under the pension plan with which you are concerned (KRS 95.621 to 95.629) the board of trustees of the pension fund is authorized to make all necessary rules for its government in the discharge of its duties. However, the applicable pension statutes contain no provisions relative to disqualification from pension benefits because of misconduct.
Thus, in the apparent absence of a Kentucky case concerning the matter, it is our opinion that since the pension statutes do not contain any provisions relative to disqualification from pension benefits because of misconduct, an otherwise qualified applicant for pension benefits cannot be disqualified from receiving benefits because of misconduct.
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