The Village of Vernon Hills v. Heelan

Defendant, a Village police officer for 20 years, was awarded a line-of-duty disability pension for injuries from slip and fall while responding to emergency call, which aggravated his preexisting hip osteoarthritis.Where a line-of-duty disability pension has been awarded, Section 10(a) of Public Safety Employee Benefits Act is satisfied, and a catastrophic injury has been suffered as a matter of law. Village was not deprived of procedural due process in declaratory judgment action, and enactment of the Employee Benefits Act itself afforded Village all process it was due. (GARMAN, THOMAS, KILBRIDE, KARMEIER, BURKE, and THEIS, concurring.)