Lynch v. Board of Trustees of Fireman's Pension & Relief Fund

Citations

• 117 La. 1071
• 42 So. 506
• 1906 La. LEXIS 819

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal Corporations — Firemen — Pensions — Persons Entitled.</p> <p>Act No. 43, p. 51, of 1902, created the board of trustees of the fireman’s pension and relief fund, and designated disabled firemen and their widows and children as the parties entitled to pensions from the pension fund. The twenty-third section of the act declared that it should take effect immediately after its promulgation, but provided that no pension should bo withdrawn therefrom until the sum of $20,-000 should be to its credit. The third section declared that the board of trustees should have the exclusive control and management of the fund, and make all needful rules and regulations for its government in the discharge of its duties, and should hear and decide all applications for relief or pensions under the act, and its decisions should be final and conclusive, and not subject to review, except by the board. The board rejected the application of the relatrix on the ground that the only widows entitled to pensions were those whose husbands had died after the fund should have had $20,000 standing to its credit, and in the Supreme Court maintained that its decision to that effect was final, and not subject to review by the courts.</p> <p>Held, the board was in error in both respects. The law itself fixed the class of persons entitled to relief from the fund, and did not leave the determination of that question to the board. No power was given to it to make changes in that respect.</p> <p>The right was, however, granted it to decide whether, as a matter of fact, the parties applying for relief had brought themselves into the elass provided under the terms and conditions fixed by the statute. The object of the statute was not to confine the class of persons entitled to relief to widows whose husbands should die after the fund should reach $20,000, but to prohibit the payment of the pensions until after the fund had reached that sum. If the board had any discretion as to the action it wa