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Sisco v. Board of Trustees of the Police Retirement System of St. Louis8/29/2000
Appeal From: Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Hon. Philip D. Heagney
Opinion Vote: AFFIRMED.
Crandall Jr., and Dowd, JJ., concur.
Opinion:
Richard J. Sisco ("Officer Sisco") filed an action against the Board of Trustees of the Police Retirement System of the City of St. Louis ("Board of Trustees") seeking a declaratory judgment that the Board of Trustees was not permitted, under section 86.297 RSMo (1994), to offset his workers' compensation against his disability retirement allowance where both benefits were receivable on account of the same injury. Following a bench trial, the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis entered judgment allowing the offset, but reducing the amount of workers' compensation to be applied as an offset by the amount of attorney's fees and related expenses incurred by Officer Sisco in connection therewith. The judgment also reduced the amount of retirement benefits subject to setoff by Officer Sisco's "accumulated contributions" to the Police Retirement System of the City of St. Louis ("Retirement System"). Officer Sisco appeals the judgment insofar as it allows the offset. The Board of Trustees cross-appeals to the extent the judgment excludes the attorney's fees and accumulated contributions from the offset calculation. We affirm.
Officer Sisco was commissioned as a police officer by the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of St. Louis ("Board of Police Commissioners") in June 1967. As a condition of employment, Officer Sisco was required to become a member of the Retirement System. Section 86.207. As a member, Officer Sisco was obligated to contribute seven percent of his salary for each pay period into the "members' savings fund." Section 86.320. Such contributions were entitled to earn interest, section 86.303, with the sum of the two to be known as his "accumulated contributions." Section 86.200.1(1). When a member is entitled to receive benefits from the Retirement System, other than benefits consisting solely of a refund of that member's contributions, such benefits are paid from the "benefit reserve fund." Section 86.323. The benefit reserve fund consists of a member's accumulated contributions, which are transferred from the members' savings fund at the time the payment of benefits is approved, plus an "additional amount from the general reserve fund as is calculated by the actuary to be necessary with the member's contributions to provide the payment of all benefits arising from the service of such member." Section 86.323. Monies in the general reserve fund are contributed by the City. Section 86.327.
In January 1985, Officer Sisco was severely and permanently injured in a motor vehicle accident while on duty. In April of that year, Officer Sisco filed a claim for workers' compensation under chapter 287 RSMo. For reasons not apparent to this court from the record, such claim was not heard by the Division of Workers' Compensation until December 1992. Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees retired Officer Sisco on August 1, 1986, pursuant to section 86.263, because his injuries rendered him totally and permanently incapacitated for the further performance of duty. On the same date, Officer Sisco began receiving a disability retirement allowance pursuant to section 86.267.1 in the amount of $1,670.40 per month.
In March, 1993, the Division of Workers' Compensation awarded to Officer Sisco: (1) $25,071.40 for medical expenses; (2) 75 1/7 weeks of temporary total disability benefits at $222.73 per week ($16,736.57); (3) permanent total disability benefits of $222.73 per week for the remainder of his life; and (4) 344 weeks of past-due permanent total disability benefits at 222.73 pe
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