Rule 23 – 1st District Decided March 20, 2024
The court held that the pension board did not lack jurisdiction to divest plaintiff of his pension benefits following his conviction for felony possession of child pornography, which occurred after the award of plaintiff’s pension.
The Plaintiff, John Trapp, applied for retirement benefits from the Burbank Firefighters’ Pension Fund and was granted a pension in September 2017. However, in December 2019, he was charged with possession of child pornography and pleaded guilty in September 2020. The Burbank Firefighters’ Pension Fund held a hearing in July 2022 to determine whether Trapp’s felony conviction warranted the termination of his pension benefits. The Board decided to revoke Trapp’s pension benefits, citing his felony conviction which had a nexus to his firefighter employment as grounds for termination.
Trapp argued the Board lost jurisdiction to review its initial decision granting retirement benefits because the Board failed to retain jurisdiction and therefore cannot change its award after the 35 day appeal period had expired. However, the Appellate Court rejected this argument, stating the subsequent decision to terminate Trapp’s benefits was a new action based upon new information and was not an appeal.
The Court also rejected Trapp’s argument that the Board should have retained jurisdiction pending the outcome of the investigation into his misconduct allegations. It stated that the Board had the authority to file a new action to terminate benefits upon conviction for a service-related felony, without the need to retain jurisdiction. In finding the Plaintiff’s complaint meritless, the Court stated: “plaintiff was plainly ineligible for a pension benefit under the terms of section 4-138. The Board was therefore required by statute to divest plaintiff of his pension award because it no longer had the power to pay that money pursuant to section 4-138.”