ERISA – Pensions

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: Susan L. Baldwin, et al. v. Milwaukee County, et al.

Case No.: 2016AP2380

Officials: Lundsten, P.J., Blanchard and Fitzpatrick, JJ.

Focus: ERISA – Pensions

Many employees of Milwaukee County have the right to pension benefits through the Employees’ Retirement System of the County of Milwaukee (ERS), which is overseen by a Pension Board. Susan Baldwin was an employee of Milwaukee County. At the time of Baldwin’s retirement in 2003, the Pension Board approved her monthly pension payment, and Baldwin started receiving that approved monthly payment in 2003. In 2014, the ERS informed Baldwin of the following: a mistake had been made by the ERS in 2000 in determining her eligibility to receive certain service credits and that error affected the Pension Board’s 2003 determination of her monthly pension payment; as a result, the pension payments Baldwin received were incorrect; and she had received overpayments totaling approximately $223,000. In 2015, the ERS informed Baldwin that her monthly pension payment would be reduced significantly to adjust for the service credit error and to recoup the overpayments. In 2015, Baldwin appealed to the Pension Board the ERS’s determinations that she was ineligible to receive the service credits and that her monthly pension payments would be reduced to account for the service credit mistake and to recoup the overpayments. Baldwin’s appeal was denied by the Pension Board. Baldwin sought certiorari review of the Pension Board’s decisions in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, and the circuit court affirmed the Pension Board’s decisions. Baldwin appeals.

On appeal, Baldwin, for the first time, concedes that the Pension Board was correct when it decided that Baldwin was not eligible to receive the service credits. We accept that concession and, on that basis, affirm the circuit court in this respect. However, we agree with Baldwin that, pursuant to a time limitation contained in Pension Board Rule 1001, the Pension Board no longer had the authority in 2015 to reduce Baldwin’s monthly pension payments. Accordingly, we affirm in part, and reverse in part, the order of the circuit court, and remand this matter to the circuit court with directions that it remand to the Pension Board for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.