§ 5-218 — Annuities, etc

- Exempt. All pensions, annuities, refunds or disability benefits granted under this Article, and every portion thereof, are exempt from attachment or garnishment process and shall not be seized, taken, subjected to, detained or levied upon by virtue of any judgment, or any process or proceeding whatsoever issued out of or by any court for the payment and satisfaction in whole or in part of any debt, damage, claim, demand, or judgment against a pensioner, annuitant, refund applicant or other beneficiary hereunder. No pensioner, annuitant, refund applicant or disability beneficiary has a right to transfer or assign his or her pension, annuity, refund or disability benefit or any part thereof by mortgage or otherwise, except that a pensioner or annuitant may direct in writing that payment be made monthly, in a fixed amount, for hospitalization purposes. The board, in its discretion, may pay to the wife or unmarried minor child of an annuitant, pensioner, refund applicant or disability beneficiary, such amount out of the annuity, pension, refund or disability benefit as a court may order, or such amount as the board may consider necessary for the support of such wife or child (or both) in the event of his disappearance or unexplained absence or his failure to support his wife or child, or both. The board may also withhold from any future annuity, pension, refund or disability benefit payments such amount, or amounts, as it may, in its discretion, set for the purpose of repayment of any moneys paid to an annuitant, pensioner, refund applicant or disability beneficiary through misrepresentation, fraud or error; provided that when any pension or annuity is claimed to have been paid erroneously to a policeman who retired prior to the effective date and the policeman has subsequently re-entered the service and resumed contributions to the fund, no part of any future annuity or disability benefit payable to him when he again becomes separated from the service shall be retained or withheld for repayment into the fund of any deficiency due from him on account of any pension or annuity prior to such re-entry if such original pension or annuity was paid without any misrepresentation by the policeman as to his age or period of service in the procuring of such prior pension. Any authorized action taken by the board shall relieve and release the board and the fund from any liability for any moneys retained or paid out as herein provided. Whenever money is payable to a minor or to a person adjudged to be under legal disability to manage or care for his own estate, the board may, in its discretion when to the apparent interest of the minor or person under legal disability, waive guardianship proceedings and pay such money to the person providing for or caring for the minor, and to the wife, parent or blood relative providing or caring for the person under legal disability. Whenever a pensioner, annuitant, refund applicant or disability beneficiary disappears or his whereabouts are unknown and it cannot be ascertained whether or not he is living, there shall be paid to his wife or his children, or both, under this section, such amount only as will not be in excess of the amount which would be payable in the event the pensioner, annuitant, refund applicant or disability beneficiary had died on the date of his disappearance; and, in the event of his subsequent return, or upon satisfactory proof of his being alive, the amount theretofore paid shall be charged against any moneys payable to him under any of the provisions of this Article to the same effect as though the payment to his wife or children, or both, had been an allowance to her or them out of the moneys payable to him as such pensioner, annuitant, refund applicant or disability beneficiary.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 83-706 .)