Reinfeld v. San Francisco City & County Employees Retirement System

BRAZIL, J. pro tem.* For 40 years or so, Harry Reinfeld was a civil service employee of the city and county of San Francisco, serving in the capacity of an engineer. As such employee he was a member of long standing in the city’s retirement system and he had made regular contributions to the retirement fund in a total sum, with interest, of $9,554.73.

In November of 1953 the retirement board notified him that as he would be 65 years old come next January he would be retired on February 1,1954, by virtue of the mandatory retirement provisions of the city charter. In December of 1953 Mr. Reinfeld, with his wife, went to the office of the System and there signed a “compulsory service retirement form” and an “election with regard to option” wherein he chose the maximum monthly allowance from among the four options available to him before actual retirement. From early October 1953 to the 1st of February 1954, he was not actually working because of his illness, which was mental of nature. All during this time he drew sick-leave pay. He received two monthly retirement checks totaling $846.89 and his widow got $415.07 as the pro-rated amount for April and the further sum of $500 death benefit allowance. Mr. Reinfeld died April 29, 1954.

During February of the following year, the widow as special administratrix of his estate served notice of rescission on the retirement board with an offer to return all moneys theretofore received from the board as a result of the retirement and demanded payment of all accumulated contributions and interest of her husband to the fund. She asserted that her husband was incompetent for several months before his retirement and she asked for a hearing of the matter before the board to determine this fact. The board took no action.

She then filed an action for declaratory relief, the basis of which lies primarily on the claim that Mr. Reinfeld was mentally incompetent from and after October 1, 1953, until [462]he died. As all agreed that it was up to the retirement board to conduct the inquiry (Ware v. Retirement Board, 65 Cal.App.2d 781 [151 P.2d 549]), if one were required, to determine whether or not the employee was legally incompetent, the fact of mental incompetency became the subject of a limited stipulation. The parties stipulated for the purposes of deciding the legal issues in the action for declaratory relief that the employee was mentally incompetent from October 1, 1953, to February 1, 1954. Then if the court found the issue of ineompetency to be material to a determination of the rights and obligations of the parties, the matter would go back to the board for a determination of the employee’s mental condition.