Mager v. STATE EMPLOYEES'RETIREMENT BD.
Decision Date | 11 May 2004 |
Citation | 849 A.2d 287 |
Parties | Ann E. MAGER and Paul R. Mager, Petitioners v. STATE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent. |
Court | Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court |
Vincent P. Szeligo, Pittsburgh, for petitioners.
Paul M. Stahlnecker, Harrisburg, for respondent.
Timothy M. Maatta, Monessen, for intervenor, J. Stagon.
BEFORE: COLINS, President Judge, and SIMPSON, Judge (P.), and McCLOSKEY, Senior Judge.
OPINION BY President Judge COLINS.
Ann E. Mager and Paul R. Mager (Petitioners) petition for review of the June 30, 2003 final order of the State Employees' Retirement Board (the Board), denying their request to receive the death benefit of their deceased son, Dwaine P. Mager (Decedent), and directing that said death benefit be paid to the decedent's last named beneficiary and former spouse, Joanne Stagon, formerly Joanne Mager (Intervenor).
The following factual background of the present matter is based upon the Findings of Fact made by the Hearing Examiner for the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS). The Decedent was employed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDot) and became a member of SERS on June 16, 1969. The Decedent was employed by PennDot until August 18, 1995, when he was terminated with a total of 22.6670 years of credited state service. On August 21, 1976, the Decedent and Intervenor were married. This was the Decedent's only marriage, and the couple had no children. On September 26, 1985, the Decedent and Intervenor, by mutual consent, were divorced. No property settlement agreement was prepared in connection with said divorce. In 1980, the Decedent transferred ownership of his home to his parents, and in 1985, he transferred ownership of a bar to them. On December 5, 1993, the Decedent executed a will naming his parents as his sole heirs.
The Decedent passed away on December 22, 2001. The record indicates that the Decedent suffered from alcoholism both during his employment with PennDot and throughout the period after his termination from PennDot until his death. Having been hospitalized several times for alcoholism, the Decedent had no gainful employment from the time of his termination with PennDot in 1995 until his death. During this period, the Decedent seemed to have relied upon his mother, father, and brother Brian for all his financial and moral support. The Decedent stayed at his parents' home two or three times a week and spent the remainder of his time alone or at his parents' house in the mountains. The record additionally notes that Intervenor never visited the Decedent during his hospitalizations nor did she provide him with any financial assistance.
At the time of Decedent's death in 2001, there were four nomination of beneficiary forms in the Decedent's SERS member file. The nomination of beneficiary forms dated respectively November 4, 1971, and May 3, 1976, named Decedent's father, Paul R. Mager, as principal beneficiary of Decedent's SERS retirement account. By nomination of beneficiary forms dated May 2, 1977, and May 21, 1979, Decedent named his then wife and Intervenor in the present matter, Joanne Stagnon Mager, as principal beneficiary of his SERS retirement account.
After receiving notification of the Decedent's death, SERS, by letter dated April 9, 2002, contacted the Intervenor as the last named beneficiary in Decedent's SERS member file. However, by letter dated April 10, 2002, the Decedent's mother, Petitioner Ann Mager, notified SERS that the Decedent's family was contesting the beneficiary designation of Intervenor on the Decedent's SERS account because Decedent and Intervenor were divorced in 1985 and Decedent had told Petitioner that he had changed his nomination of beneficiary form to make Petitioner his designated beneficiary. The Decedent's SERS member file and his PennDot personnel file were both searched for any other SERS nomination of beneficiary forms filed more recently than the May 21, 1979 form designating Intervenor. However, no other more recent forms were found.
By letter dated April 22, 2002, SERS denied Petitioners' request to change the beneficiary on Decedent's SERS account, stating that Petitioners were not named on the latest beneficiary nomination form in the Decedent's SERS file, which was the May 21, 1979 form naming Intervenor as Decedent's beneficiary. Petitioners appealed the SERS decision and requested an administrative hearing and adjudication by the Board. By letter and petition dated July 2, 2002, Intervenor filed a petition to intervene in the appeal.
After a deposition of the Decedent's one-time supervisor, Stanley Cieslinski, and after an administrative hearing conducted before the Board on September 18, 2002, the Board, by order dated June 30, 2003, denied Petitioners' request and directed that Decedent's death benefit be paid to his last named beneficiary, his former wife. This appeal followed.1 The record indicates that at some time between 1990 and 1993, the Decedent, his brother, Brian Mager, who also worked at PennDot, and the Decedent's supervisor, Stanley Cieslinski, all attended a PennDot meeting called by the personnel office. At this meeting, PennDot employees were directed to review their personnel files, make any necessary changes, delete outdated documents, and express objections to anything incorrect or outdated. Although Cieslinski testified that he was sitting approximately six feet from the Decedent at this meeting and observed the latter completing paper work, he conceded that he did not know whether the Decedent completed a new nomination of beneficiary form. Further, although the Decedent's brother, Brian Mager, testified that he himself completed a new nomination of beneficiary form and observed the Decedent complete one as well, they never received their member copies of said forms and their SERS file did not contain them. It is significant that no documents, forms or other writings allegedly completed at this PennDot meeting were produced into evidence either during Cieslinski's deposition or during the administrative hearing. It is also noteworthy that two individuals from PennDot who customarily handle nomination of beneficiary forms, Dave Bayshore from the PennDot personnel office and Betty Dunbar (a PennDot employee who customarily would have attended this type of meeting), were never asked to testify at the hearing.
The record additionally indicates that the SERS website sets forth the current procedures for earning and applying for benefits, and states that Pennsylvania law does not permit death benefits to be paid to a former spouse unless that spouse provides SERS with a copy of a court order or the member re-elects the former spouse as a beneficiary after the divorce.2 It is further indicated that the SERS website also provides a disclaimer, which states that the website is "not a complete statement of the laws or SERS administrative rules" and that website statements are not binding upon SERS. Although Petitioners point to this website statement as bolstering their contention that the Decedent replaced his 1979 nomination of beneficiary form designating his ex-wife as beneficiary, with a more recent one designating Petitioners as beneficiary, there is no indication in the record whether the aforementioned statements appeared on the website before the Decedent's death or that he read it.
During the hearing before the Board, Linda Miller, director of the Benefits Determination Division for SERS, testified as to SERS procedures regarding nomination of beneficiary forms. Miller testified that these forms now, as in 1979, are duplicate forms that a member completes and submits to SERS, which forms are then acknowledged on file and stamped by SERS, with a copy returned to the member. Linda Miller additionally stated that she checks to see when a nomination of beneficiary form was completed to determine whether the website statement applies, and that if a beneficiary form dated after December 1992 names a former spouse as beneficiary, it is not considered to be valid by SERS.
On appeal, Petitioners argue that: (1) pursuant to 20 Pa.C.S. § 6111.2, the May 1979 nomination of the Intervenor is invalidated, and that Petitioners, the Decedent's parents and sole heirs of the Decedent's estate, are his proper beneficiaries; (2) on several occasions, the Decedent assured his mother that she was the beneficiary of his SERS account; (3) SERS administratively invalidated all pre-divorce nominations in favor of an ex-spouse and the Board is equitably estopped from reactivating these revoked nominations; (4) the Decedent took substantial action to revoke...
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