Donnelly v. Board of Trustees of Fire Retirement System of City of Des Moines

• Decision Date: 15 April 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-423,86-423
• Citation: 403 N.W.2d 768
• Parties: Richard DONNELLY, Harold O'Brien and C.L. Sumner, Appellees, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF FIRE RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF CITY OF DES MOINES, Iowa, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 768

403 N.W.2d 768

Richard DONNELLY, Harold O'Brien and C.L. Sumner, Appellees, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF FIRE RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF CITY OF DES MOINES, Iowa, Appellant.

No. 86-423.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 15, 1987.

Nelda Barrow Mickle, City Sol., Des Moines, for appellant.

Linda G. Hanson and Charles E. Gribble of Sayre & Gribble, Des Moines, for appellees.

Considered by HARRIS, P.J., and SCHULTZ, CARTER, WOLLE, and LAVORATO, JJ.

SCHULTZ, Justice.

The determinative question in this appeal is whether retired firemen may have their pensions increased, under a statutory provision for readjustment of pensions, due to a pay raise during the preceding adjustment period, when the retirees received the raise before they retired. The board of trustees of Fire Retirement System of the City of Des Moines (board) appeals the district court decision that sustained plaintiffs' writ of certiorari and held that the board acted illegally in denying the pension increase for the plaintiff retirees. We affirm the district court.

Plaintiff firefighters, Richard Donnelly, Harold O'Brien, and C.L. Sumner, retired in December of 1984. Prior to that time their union had negotiated a pay raise for firefighters, which took effect in October of 1984. On January 1, 1985, plaintiffs petitioned for an increase in their monthly pension benefits, pursuant to Iowa Code section 411.6(12)(a) (1985), which provides in part as follows:

a. On each July 1 and January 1, the monthly pensions authorized in this section ... shall be adjusted as provided in this paragraph. An amount equal to the following percentages of the difference between the monthly earnable compensation payable to an active member of the department, of the same rank and position on the salary scale as was held by the retired or deceased member at the time of the member's retirement or death, for the month in which the last preceding adjustment was made and the monthly earnable compensation payable to an active member of the department of the same rank and position on the salary scale for the month in which the adjustment is made shall be added to the monthly pension of each retired member and each beneficiary as follows:

(1) Twenty-five percent for members receiving a service retirement allowance and for beneficiaries receiving a pension under subsection 9 of this section.

Following a denial of the request adjustment, the board reviewed its denial. After a formal hearing, the board again denied plaintiffs an adjustment. The district court acted on plaintiffs' petition for a writ of certiorari, annulled the board's decision, and ordered the board to adjust plaintiffs' pension benefits. On appeal the board attacks the trial court's holding both on the facts and on its interpretation of the statute to allow the adjustment. The parties concede and we agree that certiorari was the correct method for obtaining judicial review of the board's action. Benson v. Fort Dodge Police Pension Bd. of Trustees, 312 N.W.2d 548, 550 (Iowa 1981).

I. Factual matters. The board urges that the district court erred in finding no substantial evidence to support the findings on which the pension board based its conclusions of law. The board points to the district court's use of plaintiffs' chart analysis, hypothetically showing calculations of pensions after raises in pay, based on the respective position of each party, and claims the court ignored the board's evidence. This contention is without merit because the trial court's decision was based upon interpretation of the statute, not upon findings of fact.

Statutory construction is not a fact question. Asmann v. Board of Trustees of Police Retirement Sys., 345 N.W.2d 136, 138 (Iowa 1984). It is unlike an illegality that results from a board's failure to act in accordance with a statute, analysis of which requires a factual determination by the court. See Norland v. Worth County Compensation Bd., 323 N.W.2d 251, 253 (Iowa 1982). When the board's decision rests on a determination of disputed facts, the board's finding of fact stands unless there is not substantial evidence to support the finding. State v. Cullison, 227 N.W.2d 121, 126 (Iowa 1975). Here, the facts underlying the suit, including the date of the pay increase, plaintiffs' retirement dates, their respective ranks and salaries, and the date they requested the benefit increase, are undisputed. The issue on appeal concerns the board's application of a statute, based upon the board's own interpretation of it, to uncontroverted facts. As we have no question of fact, the substantial evidence test is inapplicable and the board's contention regarding substantial evidence is without basis.

II. Interpretation of adjustment. The parties' dispute centers on whether the retirees are entitled to an adjustment of their pensions pursuant to section 411.6(12)(a) when the pay raise that triggered an adjustment of their pensions occurred after the last preceding adjustment was made but before the employees' retirement. The amount of the retirees' pensions, calculated based on each retiree's highest three years of salary, is not challenged. Section 411.6(12)(a) provides that pensions shall be adjusted on each July 1 and January 1. The retirees' claim, adopted by the trial court, is that the plain and clear language of this section provides that on these dates pensions shall be adjusted by the appropriate percentage of any raise in salary given to an active member of the same rank as the retirees. A raise in salary is the difference between an active member's salary "for the month in which the last preceding adjustment was made" and the same active member's salary in the month in which the adjustment is made. As applied in this case, the difference between the...