Employee Benefits

Plaintiffs, individual active and retired beneficiaries from police and firefighter pensions funds, filed suit seeking a finding that amendments to portions of the Illinois Pension Code that were signed into law in 2019 were in violation of the pensions protection clause, contracts clause, and takings clause of the Illinois state constitution. The circuit court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss and plaintiffs appealed. The appellate court affirmed, holding that the amendments were constitutional and finding, among other things, that changes to the voting structure for board members were procedural and did not have a direct impact on the payment of benefits and, as such, were not a protected benefit and that plaintiffs did not have a private property right of the money held by the retirement funds, only to present or future payments from the funds. (HUTCHINSON and JORGENSEN, concurring)

Plaintiff appealed from the findings of the Marion Police Pension Board that terminated his in-the-line-of-duty disability pension payments by finding that he was no longer disabled due to an injury to his thoracic spine. The appellate court reversed, finding that the Board’s decision was against the manifest weight of the evidence where it relied on an IME report that did not discuss how the plaintiff had recovered from his disability or how he was not limited from performing the duties of a police officer. (WELCH and VAUGHAN, concurring)

Plaintiff sought administrative review of the decision of the Village of Glenview Police Pension Board relating to surviving benefits of the minor child of a deceased police officer and then appealed from the decision of the circuit court. The appellate court reversed in part and vacated in part and affirmed the Board’s initial decision that the minor son was not qualified to apply for 100 percent act of duty benefit because he was not a surviving spouse. (HOFFMAN and ROCHFORD, concurring)

Plaintiff appealed from the order of the circuit court that confirmed the decision of the Board of Trustees of the Cicero Police Pension Fund denying her application for a surviving spouse’s pension under sections 3-112(e) and 3-114.3 of the Illinois Pension Code based on the death of her husband, who was a Cicero police officer. The appellate court affirmed, finding that the Board’s decision was not against the manifest weight of the evidence when it concluded, despite conflicting medical testimony, that plaintiff’s husband’s fatal heart attack was unrelated to any performance of an act of duty and that no act of duty aggravated or exacerbated his preexisting cardiovascular disease. (LAMPKIN and HOFFMAN, concurring)

Plaintiff appealed from an order of the circuit court affirming the decision of the Board of Review of the Illinois Department of Employment Security finding that his appeal of a determination regarding unemployment benefits was not timely. The appellate court affirmed, finding that the Board lacked statutory authority and jurisdiction to hear the plaintiff’s appeal because he did not file it within the mandatory 30-day period and that the notice provided to the plaintiff of his appeal rights was not misleading or prejudicially confusing. (McBRIDE and BURKE, concurring)

The Chicago Transit Authority terminated the pension benefits of plaintiff, a former employee, after learning he was also receiving pension benefits from Cook County and the State for the same years of service he used to qualify for the CTA’s Supplemental Retirement Plan. Plaintiff filed a petition seeking review of the CTA’s decision to terminate his pension benefits and both parties moved for summary judgment. The trial court first required the CTA to hold an evidentiary hearing. It then entered summary judgment in favor of the CTA by finding that the CTA had the authority to terminate plaintiff’s benefits, but also finding that the CTA violated plaintiff’s procedural due process rights by terminating his benefits without an evidentiary hearing and awarded plaintiff 19 months of retirement benefits and attorney’s fees and costs. The appellate court affirmed, but reversed the award of damages and attorney’s fees and costs because plaintiff’s damages were nominal.(PUCINSKI and COGHLAN, concurring)

Defendant challenged termination of her employment as a tenured teacher and the hearing officer found in her favor. The circuit court reversed, finding that the officer’s factual findings were against the manifest weight of the evidence. The appellate court affirmed the circuit court’s judgment, finding that the hearing officer’s findings were against the manifest weight of the evidence where the officer relied on the testimony of an individual who was not involved in the employee remediation process that was at issue. (ZENOFF and BRENNAN, concurring)