SJC vacates termination of part-timer from retirement system

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Once the Stoneham retirement board granted a part-time employee membership in the town’s retirement system, the board could not terminate her membership, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.

Christine DeFelice, a part-time school employee, worked more than 30 hours per week for a nine-week period in 2001, then continued working on a part-time basis thereafter. The Stoneham retirement board granted DeFelice retroactive membership in the Stoneham retirement system for the nine-week period, but denied her membership for the subsequent time during which she remained a part-time employee of the department.

That decision was reversed by the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board. The Stoneham retirement board’s authority, CRAB found, did not include the ability to revoke the membership of employees once granted, because G.L.c. 32, section3(1)(a)(i) specifies the circumstances pursuant to which membership can be terminated.

“We accept CRAB’s interpretation, because (1) it is consistent with the statute’s plain language, (2) it is consistent with use of ‘eligibility’ as applied to full-time employees in the same subsection of section3, and (3) it avoids an unnecessary conflict between section3(1)(a)(i) and section(3)(2)(d),” Justice David A. Lowy wrote for a unanimous court.

“[T]he statutory requirements for terminating membership were not satisfied because no ‘prior separation from [DeFelice’s] service’ had occurred,” Lowy added.

The 19-page decision is Retirement Board of Stoneham v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board, et al., Lawyers Weekly No. 10-189-16.

Click here to read the full text of the opinion.