Hannigan v. Hoffmeister

608 N.E.2d 396, 240 Ill. App. 3d 1065, 181 Ill. Dec. 323, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 2154
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 30, 1992
Docket1-90-3299, 1-91-1799 cons.
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 608 N.E.2d 396 (Hannigan v. Hoffmeister) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hannigan v. Hoffmeister, 608 N.E.2d 396, 240 Ill. App. 3d 1065, 181 Ill. Dec. 323, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 2154 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE EGAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Lee Hannigan, filed a petition in mandamus seeking an order on the defendant, Donald Hoffmeister, the Executive Director of the State Universities Retirement System of Illinois (Retirement System) to process the plaintiff’s application for retirement benefits. The defendant filed a counterclaim. The judge first entered partial summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff and later dismissed the counterclaim. Hoffmeister appeals from that order dismissing the counterclaim.

The plaintiff later filed a count for administrative review of an order of the defendant Board of Trustees of the Universities Retirement System (the Board) withholding retirement benefits from the plaintiff until the plaintiff paid back sums of money the Retirement System had paid to him as disability benefits. The judge entered summary judgment for the plaintiff and against the Board. The Board appeals from that decision. Both appeals center on the construction of section 15 — 153.1(c) of the Illinois Pension Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 108½, par. 15 — 153.1(c)).

The plaintiff, a 57-year-old plumber employed by the University of Illinois, suffered a head injury while at work on July 30, 1979. He was off work for approximately 210 weeks and returned to work on August 8, 1983. When he first applied for disability benefits in March 1980, his application contained an agreement which stated that he planned to file a workers’ compensation claim and that if he qualified for workers’ compensation payments he would reimburse the Retirement System for the full amount of the overpayment of disability benefits. The agreement provided that the consideration for the agreement was the plaintiff’s reception of disability benefits before the expiration of the filing period for a workers’ compensation claim.

During the period he was off work, the plaintiff received $49,267.48 in disability benefits from the Retirement System. He worked until October 3, 1983, at which time he was released from work because he was dizzy and unable to work. He has not worked since. Between December 4, 1983, and December 31, 1987, the plaintiff received $72,310.50 in disability benefits from the Retirement System. In that four-year period he was examined by a number of physicians. He was depressed, had limited psycho-motor tones and had difficulty hearing. He was diagnosed as having cognitive deficiencies and signs of a personality disturbance which apparently were the result of the head injury he had suffered while on duty. The condition was considered permanent.

Although it is unclear from the record, the plaintiff was apparently denied workers’ compensation benefits by his employer, the University of Illinois, which required him to file an application for benefits before the Illinois Industrial Commission.

On December 30, 1985, an arbitrator of the Illinois Industrial Commission entered a decision for the plaintiff. The arbitrator found that the plaintiff had suffered permanent brain damage and was “totally disabled.” On November 10, 1987, the arbitrator’s decision was affirmed by the Industrial Commission, which adopted the arbitrator’s decision that the plaintiff was “totally disabled” beginning on October 3, 1983, under section 8(f) of the Workers’ Compensation Act. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 48, par. 138.8(f).) On December 24, 1987, the Board of Trustees of the Retirement System asked the plaintiff to reimburse the Retirement System for the disability benefit payment of $121,577.98. About January 1, 1988, the University of Illinois issued a check to the plaintiff in the sum of $151,510.62 for his workers’ compensation claim.

In March 1989 the plaintiff filed an application for a retirement annuity with the defendant, Donald E. Hoffmeister, the Executive Director of the Retirement System, requesting that the plaintiff’s retirement begin on May 1, 1989. The plaintiff was certified as a participant of the Retirement System effective as of December 1, 1952. Hoffmeister refused to process the plaintiff’s application until the previous payments of disability were repaid by the plaintiff.

On June 20, 1989, the plaintiff, filed a complaint in mandamus seeking an order on Hoffmeister to process the plaintiff’s retirement application. Hoffmeister filed an answer and counterclaim. The counterclaim alleged that the plaintiff had received disability benefits from the Retirement System totalling $121,577.98 for the period between March 2, 1980, and December 31, 1987, and that in October 1987, the plaintiff received workers’ compensation benefits for the same period. Count I of the counterclaim was based on section 15 — 153.1(c) of the Illinois Pension Code. In count II of the counterclaim, the defendants sought recovery of the same amount on the basis of the plaintiff’s promise to reimburse the defendants within 60 days of receiving the workers’ compensation award.

The plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss the counterclaim; later he filed a motion for summary judgment on the counterclaim. The judge ordered Hoffmeister to process the application. Hoffmeister did so. After a hearing the Board ruled that it would not pay any retirement benefits until the plaintiff had paid back the disability benefits. The plaintiff filed an additional count to the mandamus complaint seeking administrative review of the Board’s decision. The judge entered summary judgment for the plaintiff, in effect reversing the decision of the defendant Board.

We begin with the observation that the trial judge was presented with time-consuming and unnecessary procedural maneuvering by the defendants. All of the issues raised by the counterclaim were decided by the Board following the processing of the plaintiff’s application, which the judge had to order in the first place. There was no reason for Hoffmeister to refuse at least to process the application. Consequently, there should have been no necessity for the plaintiff to file a mandamus suit or for the defendant Hoffmeister to file a counterclaim.

Now the defendants tell us in their reply brief that the trial judge lacked jurisdiction to review the Board’s decision ordering the withholding of benefits because, the Board maintains, the plaintiff filed his complaint for administrative review as a separate count to his already-filed mandamus complaint. The Board maintains that the plaintiff should have filed a separate complaint with, of course, the attendant additional cost. It conceded that the count in administrative review was filed within 35 days of the Board’s decision and was, therefore, timely.

Because lack of jurisdiction may be raised at any time, the fact that the Board has raised the question in its reply brief is immaterial. Consequently, we will answer the defendants’ contention that the trial judge lacked jurisdiction: The defendants’ argument is frivolous. None of the cases cited by the defendants is remotely in point. In Castaneda v. Illinois Human Rights Comm’n (1989), 132 Ill. 2d 304, 547 N.E.2d 437, the supreme court held that the complaint should have been dismissed because the plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. In Burns v. Edgar (1989), 178 Ill. App. 3d 708,

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Bluebook (online)
608 N.E.2d 396, 240 Ill. App. 3d 1065, 181 Ill. Dec. 323, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 2154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hannigan-v-hoffmeister-illappct-1992.