Glancey v. Com., State Employes' Retirement Bd.

• Decision Date: 18 May 1992
• Citation: 530 Pa. 481,610 A.2d 15
• Parties: Joseph R. GLANCEY, William Porter & Julian F. King, Appellants, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania STATE EMPLOYES' RETIREMENT BOARD, Appellee. Thomas N. SHIOMOS, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania STATE EMPLOYES' RETIREMENT BOARD.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 15

610 A.2d 15

530 Pa. 481

Joseph R. GLANCEY, William Porter & Julian F. King, Appellants, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania STATE EMPLOYES' RETIREMENT

BOARD, Appellee.

Thomas N. SHIOMOS, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania STATE EMPLOYES' RETIREMENT BOARD.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Oct. 25 and Oct. 26, 1990.

Decided May 18, 1992.

[530 Pa. 482] John Rogers Carroll, Philadelphia, for Glancey.

Stephen P. Gallagher, Philadelphia, for Porter.

James E. Beasley, Barbara R. Axelrod, Philadelphia, for King.

Abbott A. Leban, Philadelphia, for appellee.

F. Emmett Fitzpatrick, III, Philadelphia, for Shiomos.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS and CAPPY, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

CAPPY, Justice.

This case presents the question of whether judges removed from office for disciplinary reasons, pursuant to Article V, Section 18 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, automatically forfeit their pension benefits by virtue of Article V, Section 16(b).

For the reasons set out as follows, we conclude that neither the history nor the language of the Constitution support a conclusion that Article V, Section 16(b) is meant to create a broad pension forfeiture provision.

Procedural History

Involved in this appeal are four individual Petitioners whose cases have been consolidated at two docket numbers. As each Petitioner raises the identical issue we shall resolve the matter in one opinion, referring to separate facts when necessary.

The Petitioners are all former judges of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who have been removed from judicial office by this Court. Such disciplinary action occurred after the Judicial Inquiry and Review Board (JIRB) of Pennsylvania, which is established pursuant to Article V, Section 18 of the state Constitution, recommended removal upon finding that each Petitioner judge had accepted small cash Christmas gifts (generally amounting to several hundred dollars) from a Roofers' Union in Philadelphia. Some of the Petitioner judges also failed to report such gifts on their mandatory Statements of Financial Interest, and furthermore made misrepresentations to federal agents when questioned about the receipt of these gifts.

Following removal from office, each of the Petitioner judges sought to collect his monthly pension benefits from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System (SERS). Each application was denied by the State Employees' Retirement Board (SERB), under the purported authority of Article V, Section 16(b) of the pennsylvania Constitution. The latter provision of the state Constitution states simply: "No compensation shall The particular facts relevant to each of these four cases may be briefly summarized as follows. Petitioner Joseph R. Glancey became a judge on the Philadelphia Municipal Court effective January 6, 1969. He remained in that office until he resigned on March 31, 1988, under the cloud of the Roofers' Union scandal. JIRB, in due course, recommended the removal of Petitioner Glancey based upon his misconduct. Prior to the matter being argued and reviewed by this Court, however, he resigned. This Court reviewed the record of JIRB and entered an order which "forever barred (Glancey) from holding judicial office in this Commonwealth." See, In the Matter of Glancey, 515 Pa. 201, 527 A.2d 997 (1987) (Glancey I) and In the Matter of Glancey, 518 Pa. 276, 542 A.2d 1350 (1988) (Glancey II).

                be paid to any justice, judge or justice of the peace who is suspended or removed from office under section eighteen of this article or under article six."   However, Petitioners were permitted to withdraw that portion of the pension benefits which they had contributed themselves, along with statutory interest
                

When Petitioner Glancey filed an application seeking to withdraw his own pension contributions and seeking to receive a reduced retirement allowance for the rest of his life, SERB denied his request. The Board determined that Petitioner Glancey was entitled to no more than the return of his own contributions, plus statutory interest. The Commonwealth Court affirmed. See, Glancey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State Employees' Retirement Board, 126 Pa.Commw. 457, 560 A.2d 263 (1989).

The second Petitioner, William Porter, was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County on December 30, 1971. He was elected to a full ten-year term commencing January 7, 1974, and was reelected to a second term commencing January 2, 1984. Judge Porter received $300 from the Roofers' Union under unacceptable circumstances during the year 1985, but did not engage in any cover-up after that investigation was made public. By Order dated February 25, 1988, this Court directed that Petitioner Porter be suspended from judicial office, forfeit his office, and furthermore declared Petitioner's office to be vacant. See, Matter of Cunningham, 517 Pa. 417, 538 A.2d 473, appeal dismissed sub nom. White v. Judicial Inquiry and Review Board, 488 U.S. 805, 109 S.Ct. 36, 102 L.Ed.2d 16 (1988).

On July 22, 1988, SERB denied Petitioner Porter's request for his vested retirement benefits. ¹ A divided panel of the Commonwealth Court affirmed, holding that since Porter had "forfeited" his office, this was akin to "removal" under Section 16(b) and, therefore, he was not entitled to retirement benefits. See, Porter v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State Employees' Retirement Board, 129 Pa.Commw. 290, 565 A.2d 512 (1989). The Commonwealth Court noted that if Petitioner Porter was elected or appointed to judicial office in the future--a possibility which was not precluded by his suspension--he would be entitled to become a member of SERS again. However, his pension benefits would only run from that date forward. Id. 565 A.2d at 515, n. 4.

Petitioner Julian F. King was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, in December of 1971, at which time he became a member of SERS. He was elected to a ten-year term commencing November of 1973, and was re-elected to another ten-year term in November of 1983. On July 20, 1988, this Court entered an Order directing that Judge King be removed from office; that his salary cease from that date forward; and that he thereafter be ineligible to hold judicial office. See, Cunningham. The evidence indicated that Judge King had received $200 in cash On May 17, 1988, Petitioner King filed an application with SERS seeking to withdraw a lump sum amount equal to his own contributions plus statutory interest, along with a reduced retirement allowance for life. SERB denied this request, with the exception of permitting King to withdraw his own contributions, plus interest. The Commonwealth Court affirmed. See, King v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement Board, 129 Pa.Commw. 444, 566 A.2d 323 (1989).

in 1983, $200 in cash in 1984, and $300 in cash in 1985. It also indicated that Judge King had failed to report such gifts on his financial disclosure forms in 1984, the first year such forms were mandatory.

Finally, Petitioner Thomas N. Shiomos served as a judge on the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County from January 3, 1973 until his retirement on March 1, 1984. At the time of his retirement he began receiving a monthly pension benefit of $1,883.61 from SERS. Thereafter, this Court granted Petitioner Shiomos status as a Senior Judge, pursuant to the power set forth in Article V, Section 16(c) of the Pennsylvania Constitution. In this capacity, Judge Shiomos served on an as-needed basis, with his last assignment on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas during the month of November, 1986. On November 18, 1986, Chief Justice Nix revoked the order assigning Petitioner a seat on the Court of Common Pleas, thus ending his service.

On November 28, 1986, JIRB commenced disciplinary proceedings against Petitioner Shiomos, and on August 5, 1987 recommended that he be removed from office. The Board found that Shiomos had accepted cash gifts on at least six occasions from the Roofers' Union, and had lied to FBI agents in an attempt to cover up his misconduct. On November 4, 1987 this Court entered the following Order:

AND NOW, this 4th day of November, 1987 the recommendation of the Judicial Inquiry and Review Board in the instant proceeding is accepted, and it is ORDERED that respondent, Thomas N. Shiomos, be forever barred from judicial duties or office.

On July 20, 1988, the State Employees' Retirement Board (SERB) entered an order suspending payment of retirement benefits to Shiomos, citing Article V, Section 16(b) of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Commonwealth Court sitting en banc approved the termination of Petitioner Shiomos' retirement benefits. See, Shiomos v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement Board, 128 Pa.Commw. 39, 562 A.2d 969 (1989).

In each instance, appellants herein filed a petition for allowance of appeal to this court pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 724(a), and those petitions were granted.

Discussion

This case brings into collision two competing concerns of the highest order in our society. First, that public officials--including judges--who betray the public trust, must expect to endure the most weighty sanctions for their conduct. Second, in conflict with the first, is the concern that no individual--even an errant public official--should be stripped of his or her contractual right to receive deferred compensation, see McKenna v. State Employees' Retirement Board, 495 Pa. 324, 433 A.2d 871 (1981) (Nix and Flaherty, JJ., concurring) (pension benefits are based upon contract theory of deferred compensation), without explicit statutory or Constitutional authority.

In unraveling this conundrum, we begin by observing that the language of Article V, Section 16(b) of the Pennsylvania Constitution is inherently ambiguous. In full, Section 16 of the Constitution provides as follows:

Sec. 16. Compensation and retirement of justices,...