Barnwell v. City Council of Beverly Hills

WILSON, J.—Plaintiffs, who are retired employees of the city of Beverly Hills, brought this mandamus proceeding against the city council of the city and Board of Administration, California State Employees’ Retirement System, to compel the payment to them of retirement benefits to which they assert they are entitled and which defendants refuse to pay. From a judgment in favor of defendants plaintiffs have appealed.

The State Employees’ Retirement Act was adopted in [191193]1 (Stats. 1931, ch. 700, p. 1442; 2 Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 5847) establishing a retirement system applicable only to employees of the state. In 1939, section 38c was added to the statute authorizing any municipal corporation to participate in the State Employees’ Retirement System and to make its employees members of the system by contract entered into by the representative body of the municipal corporation and the Board of Administration of the retirement system. (Stats. 1939, ch. 927, pp. 2605, 2608.) Prior to this amendment the city of Beverly Hills, a city of the sixth class, was without power to provide pensions for its employees. (Frisbee v. O’Connor, 119 Cal.App. 601 [7 P.2d 316].)

On July 1, 1941, plaintiffs as employees of the city of Beverly Hills became members of the State Employees’ Retirement System pursuant to contract between the city and the system’s Board of Administration. The contract provided (1) that benefits on account of service rendered to the city prior to the effective date of the contract should be allowed to the city’s employees only as percentages of the respective average salaries specified in the Retirement Act for each year of such service and (2) that such percentages should be equal to 50 per cent of the analogous percentages then used under the retirement system in calculating benefits on account of prior service allowed to employees of the state. By amendment effective as of March 1, 1946, the contract was so modified as to provide that percentages to be paid retired employees of the city should be 100 per cent óf the analogous percentages used under the retirement system. After the execution of the original contract in 1941, and prior to the amendment in 1946, plaintiffs retired from the city’s service. Thereafter each of them was awarded retirement pay from the state employees’ retirement' fund in accordance with the original agreement. This proceeding was instituted to compel defendants to place plaintiffs on the rolls of persons entitled to receive payments and retirement benefits in accordance with the contract as amended.