City of North Olmsted v. Police & Firemen's Disability & Pension Fund Board of Trustees

483 N.E.2d 162, 19 Ohio App. 3d 165, 19 Ohio B. 271, 1984 Ohio App. LEXIS 12508
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 21, 1984
Docket46133
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 483 N.E.2d 162 (City of North Olmsted v. Police & Firemen's Disability & Pension Fund Board of Trustees) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of North Olmsted v. Police & Firemen's Disability & Pension Fund Board of Trustees, 483 N.E.2d 162, 19 Ohio App. 3d 165, 19 Ohio B. 271, 1984 Ohio App. LEXIS 12508 (Ohio Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

This appeal is brought by intervening defendants-appellants, Ray A. Bement et al., from a final order of the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, granting a declaratory judgment in favor of plaintiff-appellee, the city of North Olmsted, on its complaint against defendant-appellee, Police and Firemen’s Disability and Pension Fund Board of Trustees. We affirm the trial court’s decision.

I

There is no dispute as to the facts governing the issues raised in this case as the parties expressly stipulated to the facts upon which the trial court was to decide the case.

On January 6, 1953, the Council of the city of North Olmsted established, by Ordinance No. 1008, a firemen’s relief and pension fund (hereinafter local pension fund) in accordance with R.C. Chapter 741. No firemen’s relief and pension fund had existed prior to the enactment of Ordinance No. 1008, notwithstanding the fact that the statute authorizing such funds, G.C. 4600, was amended in 1947. The enabling clause of Section 3 of Ordinance No. 1008 provided as follows:

“The Trustees of the Firemen’s Relief and Pension Fund shall adopt such rules and regulations for the management of said fund and for the disbursement of benefits and pensions as they deem necessary to comply with the requirements of law.”

The monies for the local pension fund were derived from a tax levy upon *166 real and personal property and from a four percent employee contribution.

On November 13,1956, the board of the local pension fund adopted Resolution No. 1, which provided as follows:

“That the basis upon which retirement credit be allowed to volunteer and/or part-time firemen in the service of the fire department of the City of North Olmsted be one (1) week’s service for every eighteen (18) hours of actual work.”

The title of Resolution No. 1 states that it is a resolution determining and establishing the basis upon which time spent by a volunteer and/or part-time fireman shall be computed for retirement credit. Thereafter, on April 2, 1957, the board of the local pension fund calculated and established the amount of contributions for volunteer and/or párt-ame service which affected firemen would have to pay in order to receive retroactive credit for such volunteer and/or part-time service.

Resolution No. 1 was never adopted by the Council for the city of North Olmsted by ordinance resolution, or in any other manner.

Intervening-defendants, appellants herein, were volunteer or part-time firemen for the city of North Olmsted or were in the military service prior to the enactment of Ordinance No. 1008 and the adoption of Resolution No. 1. Appellants with part-time or volunteer service with the city of North Olmsted fire department purchased retroactive credit in accordance with the terms adopted by the board of the local pension fund in April 1957.

Thereafter, the legislature enacted R.C. Chapter 742 which abolished all such local pension funds in favor of one statewide fund, which was denominated the Police and Firemen’s Disability and Pension Fund (hereinafter “PFDPF”). In January 1967, monies from the local pension fund were transferred to PFDPF in accordance with the provisions of R.C. Chapter 742. On July 14, 1967, the board of trustees of PFDPF notified the city of North Olmsted that the city had no accrued liability from said transfer of funds. This calculation was the result of the decision by the PFDPF board of trustees not to give credit for volunteer, part-time or military service prior to employees becoming full-time members of the fire department. In May 1968, an employee of the PFDPF board of trustees notified appellants that they would be given credit for such volunteer, part-time or military service. Then, in January 1978, the PFDPF board of trustees determined that appellants would not be granted credit for volunteer, part-time, or military service rendered prior to the time that appellants became members of the local pension fund. Finally, in October 1978, the PFDPF board changed its position again and decided that appellants were entitled to credit for their volunteer, part-time or military service. This determination resulted in a finding that the city of North Olmsted owed an additional $383,372.01 to the PFDPF. The PFDPF’s attempts to collect these monies from the city of North Olmsted resulted in the city’s filing of a declaratory judgment action against the PFDPF. Appellants, present or former members of the city of North Olmsted’s fire department, were given leave to intervene as defendants in the trial court.

II

The assignments of error urged by appellants are as follows:

“1. The trial court erred in finding that the local pension board had no authority to establish rules governing eligibility of part-time service credit earned by appellants.
“2. The trial court erred in finding that appellants are not members of the fund for purposes of determining service credit for part-time service.
“3. The trial court erred in finding *167 that Police and Firemen’s Disability and Pension Fund is not required to recognize part-time service credit earned by appellants.
“4. The trial court erred in not finding that appellants are entitled credit for military service time.”

The issues urged by the appellants are as follows:

“1. Whether Resolution No. 1 adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Firemen’s Relief and Pension Fund of the city of North Olmsted on November 13, 1956, was adopted pursuant to law and is enforceable.
“2. Whether appellants were ‘members of the fund,’ as defined by R.C. Chapter 742 and local law, and are therefore entitled to credit for pension purposes for part-time service to the city.
“3. Whether the PFDPF is required to recognize part-time service credit earned by appellants and granted by the local fund.
“4. Whether appellants are entitled to pension service credit for time spent in the military.”

The court will treat the four assignments of error together for purposes of this opinion.

The trial court in its opinion stated:

“The Plaintiff, City of North Olmsted, seeks a declaration by this Court as to whether a 1956 rule proposed by the North Olmsted firemen’s pension fund Board of Trustees, and known as Resolution No. 1, is capable of granting pension credit to the individual defendants for service as part-time or volunteer firemen. This Court finds that it is not.”

We agree with the findings and judgment of the trial court.

R.C. 741.18 provides, in its first paragraph, for the rule-making authority of the board of trustees of a firemen’s relief and pension fund:

“The board of trustees of the firemen’s relief and pension fund shall adopt rules for the management of such fund and for the disbursement of benefits and pensions as set forth in this section.”

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Police & Firemen's Disability & Pension Fund v. City of Akron
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487 N.E.2d 681 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
483 N.E.2d 162, 19 Ohio App. 3d 165, 19 Ohio B. 271, 1984 Ohio App. LEXIS 12508, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-north-olmsted-v-police-firemens-disability-pension-fund-board-ohioctapp-1984.