Employee Benefits

Swoboda v. Board of Trustees of the Village of Sugar Grove Police Pension Fund

Swoboda v. Board of Trustees of the Village of Sugar Grove Police Pension Fund
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Disability Benefits
Citation
Case Number: 
2015 IL App (2d) 150265
Decision Date: 
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
District: 
2d Dist.
Division/County: 
Kane Co.
Holding: 
Affirmed.
Justice: 
ZENOFF

Circuit court affirmed the decision of Village Board of Trustees Pension Fund denying Plaintiff’s application for line-of-duty disability benefits and instead awarding him nonduty benefits. Six years after joining police department, Plaintiff participated in physical-fitness tests conducted by police department.  Plaintiff suffered shoulder injury after doing bench press as part of physical fitness test.Symptoms from injury improved only slightly after 2 surgeries, and Plaintiff was unable to return to work as a police officer. As bench press test did not involve special risk, not ordinarily assumed by  citizen in ordinary walks of life, attempt to perform bench press test is not an “act of duty.” Although definition of “act of duty” is not strictly limited to activities involving protection of public safety, it is not so broad as to embrace physical-fitness activities in which persons in ordinary walks of life participate.(HUTCHINSON and BURKE, concurring.)

Hill v. Colvin

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Hill v. Colvin
Civil Court
Social Security
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 15-1230
Decision Date: 
December 3, 2015
Federal District: 
N.D. Ind., Ft. Wayne Div.
Holding: 
Reversed and remanded

Record failed to support ALJ’s denial of claimant’s application for Social Security disability benefits, even though ALJ found that claimant was unbelievable in her claim that she could not sit, stand or walk for extended periods of time because of injuries to her hip, shoulder and back. Instant negative credibility findings were based on flawed reasoning that claimant had stopped taking narcotic pain relievers and had failed to seek back specialist, where innocent explanations existed for claimant’s actions. Moreover, ALJ’s observation that claimant’s pain complaints were exaggerated because claimant had not been diagnosed with nerve root compression was not supported by medical evidence, and ALJ could not base any negative credibility finding on claimant’s testimony that she still wanted to work and had worked in manual labor jobs for many years. Also, Commissioner could not rely on evidence that claimant could perform daily living tasks to support ALJ’s decision that claimant could perform certain light duty jobs, where: (1) ALJ did not base denial of claimant's application on said fact; and (2) performance of daily activities does not necessarily support finding that claimant could perform full-time job.

Vaughn v. City of Carbondale

Illinois Supreme Court PLAs
Vaughn v. City of Carbondale
Civil Court
Public Safety Employee Benefits Act
Citation
PLA issue Date: 
September 30, 2015
Docket Number: 
No. 119181
District: 
5th Dist.
This case presents question as to whether trial court properly denied plaintiff’s request for issuance of permanent injunction to prevent defendant-City from terminating plaintiff’s employer-provided health insurance benefits that he had previously acquired as part of his pension benefits under Public Safety Employee Benefits Act (Act), after defendant had terminated said health benefits after it had received report from medical examiner indicating that plaintiff was able to return as police officer. Appellate Court, in reversing trial court, found that: (1) issue regarding defendant’s termination of plaintiff’s pension benefits was still pending, and that plaintiff was currently receiving line-of-duty pension disability benefits as result of his injury; (2) plaintiff’s injury was therefore “catastrophic” for purposes of section 10(a) of Act; and (3) plaintiff’s injury was work-related as result of his response to what he believed was emergency so as to qualify him for instant life-time health benefits.

The Village of Vernon Hills v. Heelan

The Village of Vernon Hills v. Heelan
Illinois Supreme Court
Civil Court
Public Safety Employee Benefits Act
Citation
Case Number: 
2015 IL 118170
Decision Date: 
Thursday, September 24, 2015
District: 
2d Dist.
Division/County: 
Lake Co.
Holding: 
Appellate court affirmed.
Justice: 
FREEMAN
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.)

Michels Corporation v. Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Areas Pension Fund

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Michels Corporation v. Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Areas Pension Fund
Civil Court
Pension
Citation
Case Number: 
Nos. 14-3726 & 14-3737 Cons.
Decision Date: 
September 2, 2015
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Reversed
In action by plaintiff-employer seeking declaration that its obligation to its employee’s pension fund ended on termination date of applicable extension of collective bargaining agreement (i.e., 11/15/11), Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant-pension fund’s summary judgment motion, after finding that plaintiff’s termination notice on 11/16/11 was ineffective to end plaintiff’s duty to contribute to said fund. Plaintiff’s obligation to contribute to pension fund was tied to collective bargaining agreement, and plaintiff and union had agreed to end plaintiff’s obligation to make pension payments as of 11/15/11. Fact that other aspects of collective bargaining agreement were extended by plaintiff and union beyond 11/15/11 did not require different result. As such, defendant’s receipt on 11/16/11 of signed agreement from plaintiff and union that eliminated plaintiff’s obligation to make payments into pension fund was sufficient to effectuate termination of plaintiff’s obligation to make such payments.

Vrakas v. County of Will

Vrakas v. County of Will
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Pensions
Citation
Case Number: 
2015 IL App (3d) 140424
Decision Date: 
Thursday, August 27, 2015
District: 
3d Dist.
Division/County: 
Will Co.
Holding: 
Affirmed in part and reversed in part; remanded with directions.
Justice: 
McDADE
Plaintiffs, 66 persons employed full-time as correctional deputies, sergeants, and lieutenants, filed civil suit against county and sheriff, seeking compensation for alleged impairment of pension benefits. Court improperly granted summary judgment for county as to four Plaintiffs who met requirements to be included in Sheriff"s Law Enforcement Employees Pension Plan (SLEP) prior to 2005 and 2006 dates by having taken specific appropriate oath prior to those dates. Other plaintiffs, even if they performed many of same duties as sworn deputies, did not qualify for inclusion in SLEP because they did not take statutory oath prior to the 2005 and 2006 dates.(CARTER and O'BRIEN, concurring.)

Hendricks v. Board of Trustees of the Police Pension Fund of the City of Galesburg

Hendricks v. Board of Trustees of the Police Pension Fund of the City of Galesburg
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Pension Code
Citation
Case Number: 
2015 IL App (3d) 140858
Decision Date: 
Monday, August 24, 2015
District: 
3d Dist.
Division/County: 
Knox Co.
Holding: 
Affirmed and remanded.
Justice: 
CARTER
Retired police officer filed complaint for administrative review of decision of Board of Trustees of City Police Pension Fund and President of Board of Trustees, denying his application for police retirement benefits. Pension Board found Plaintiff disqualified from benefits because of his prior job-related felony conviction, although prior conviction had been vacated by trial court pursuant to TASC statute. Disqualification provision of Pension Code applies only if applicant stands convicted of a job-related felony; once conviction was vacated, it no longer had legal character or effect of a conviction. Appellate court affirmed trial court's judgment and ordered Board to grant Plaintiff police retirement benefits. (HOLDRIDGE and LYTTON, concurring.)

The Village of Westmont v. The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

The Village of Westmont v. The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Pension Code
Citation
Case Number: 
2015 IL App (2d) 141070
Decision Date: 
Thursday, August 13, 2015
District: 
2d Dist.
Division/County: 
DuPage Co.
Holding: 
Affirmed.
Justice: 
JORGENSEN
(Court opinion corrected 8/20/15.) Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) cannot create and be bound by a nonstatutory exclusion to statutory requirement that a municipality must enroll its part-time, 1000-plus hours per year firefighters in IMRF when municipality has not created a local pension fund. Allowing fire department to remain in Group IV would conflict with Pension Code. IMRF's Authorized Agent Manual's Group IV exclusion, as applied to village, cannot have the force of law.(SCHOSTOK and BIRKETT, concurring.)

Alaura v. Colvin

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Alaura v. Colvin
Civil Court
Social Security
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 15-1727
Decision Date: 
August 18, 2015
Federal District: 
N.D. Ind., Ft. Wayne Div.
Holding: 
Reversed and remanded
Remand was required in instant denial of claimant’s application for Social Security disability benefits, where claimant alleged that he suffered from chronic daily headaches, left occipital neuralgia, seizure activity, myofascial pain and mood disorder, and where ALJ failed to address doctor’s treatment of claimant’s conditions and further failed to consider combined effects of all of claimant’s impairments on his ability to work. Ct. further criticized ALJ for failing to seek out SSA medical consultants for opinion on claimant’s medical condition, where most recent medical opinion took place more than one year prior to hearing. It also criticized vocational expert, who failed to adequately explain statistical basis for opinion that plaintiff could perform three jobs with claimant’s impairments.

Stepp v. Colvin

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Stepp v. Colvin
Civil Court
Social Security
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 14-3163
Decision Date: 
July 31, 2015
Federal District: 
S.D. Ind., Terre Haute Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed and reversed in part and remanded
Record contained sufficient evidence to support ALJ’s denial of claimant’s application for Social Security disability insurance benefits arising out of claimant's degenerative disc disease, where certain physicians noted claimant’s alleged improvement in her back condition after undergoing surgery and medication, and where ALJ provided legitimate reasons for favoring certain pieces of evidence over others. However, claimant was entitled to remand for consideration of “new and material” evidence from physician that was submitted on day of ALJ decision, which supported claimant’s contention that back condition did not, in fact, improve, where: (1) Appeal Council’s order and denial notice never specifically mentioned said evidence so as to indicate that Counsel had viewed said evidence as “new and material;” and (2) said evidence was in fact new and material, where it bore on main ALJ conclusion that claimant’s condition had improved to point where claimant could perform sedentary work.