Wesley v. Board of Pension Commissioners

Opinion

FLEMING, J.

Donald Wesley appeals the denial of his petition for mandate. The issue is whether his employer, the City of Los Angeles, was entitled to reduce his disability retirement pension by the amount of his workers’ compensation award.

Wesley was employed as a Los Angeles police officer from May 1955 until August 1972, when at the age of 39 he was found to be suffering from a disabling heart condition and was granted a “nonservice-connected disability retirement” pension. (Charter of the City of Los Angeles, § 190.12(b).) In June 1978, six years after he retired, Wesley was awarded $3,780 in workers’ compensation benefits for a service-connected back injury sustained in 1971. In September 1978 the city

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notified Wesley that his pension would be offset by the amount of his workers’ compensation in accordance with section 190.15 of its charter, which entitles the city to offset liability for workers’ compensation against certain pensions. City thereafter suspended Wesley’s pension payments until the total value of the suspended installments equalled the amount of his workers’ compensation benefits. Wesley unsuccessfully petitioned the superior court to mandate the city to pay the additional $3,780 in pension benefits.

On appeal, Wesley contends that section 190.15 of the city charter is (1) invalid because it conflicts with section 3751 of the Labor Code, which prohibits funding of workers’ compensation awards through employee salary deductions or contributions, and (2) inapplicable in any event because the pension and workers’ compensation awards were based upon different injuries.

I

Section 190.15 of the charter, the section which permits the city to offset workers’ compensation obligations against certain pensions reads in part: “If, pursuant to general law, an award of compensation shall be made or compensation shall be paid on account of injury, sickness or death caused by or arising out of employment . .. the total amount of any pension granted pursuant to this Article shall be deemed to be, and shall be, reduced by the total amount of the compensation so awarded . .. provided, however, that any [service] pension granted pursuant to Section 190.11 shall not be reduced by any compensation which shall be awarded or paid, ...”