Lyons v. Hoover

GIBSON, C. J.

Plaintiff, the widow of a former employee of the city of Sacramento, sought a writ of mandate to compel Hoover, the city controller, to draw warrants to cover sums which the retirement board of the city found had been erro

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neously withheld from her monthly pension. She has appealed from a judgment denying her petition.

Plaintiff’s husband had been a member of the fire department and was retired on a disability pension, and after his death she was granted a widow’s pension of $75 per month. The Industrial Accident Commission awarded plaintiff and her three minor children $5,910.71 as a disability and death benefit under the workmen’s compensation law. The city contributes to the retirement system and the charter provides that compensation payments shall be a deductible credit against that part of the pension allowance which is provided by contributions of the city. The city council adopted a resolution which ordered that plaintiff’s pension be reduced by the sum of $71.31 per month until the amount withheld should equal the total of the compensation award. This deduction represented the portion of plaintiff’s pension which was furnished by the city’s contributions to the retirement system. On June 30, 1943, the retirement board reduced plaintiff’s monthly pension in accordance with the resolution of the city council.

Some time thereafter plaintiff requested the retirement board to recompute her pension allowance, pointing out that section 4703 of the Labor Code provides that the compensation award should be divided equally among her three minor children and herself, and that only one-fourth of the award belonged to her. She claimed that, for this reason, only her share of the award should be deducted from her pension allowance. The board concluded that plaintiff’s position was correct, and in February 1948, it ordered that she be given a refund of $2,481.87, the amount withheld in excess of one-fourth of the award, and directed that thereafter she be paid a pension allowance of $75 a month without further deductions.

The board directed the controller to draw warrants in accordance with its conclusion, and he refused upon the grounds that the determination of the board was in conflict with the resolution of the city council authorizing deductions from plaintiff’s pension payments until the full amount of the compensation award was withheld, that it was contrary to the action taken by the board on June 30, 1943, and that it was in violation of the city charter.