Opinion ID: 1756978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Legality of pension board's action.

Text: Should trial court find, upon remand, that the CSC did in fact determine that Downs had passed the physical examination, the issue of the legality of the pension board's action will again arise. Therefore, we will address that question now to provide guidance upon remand. The powers of local police pension boards are set forth in chapter 411, The Code 1979. We find nothing in that chapter, or elsewhere in the Code, which grants such boards the power to exclude from the retirement system a person who has been properly certified by the CSC as eligible for appointment. The pension board argues that such authority is found in section 411.3(1), The Code 1979, which states: All persons who become police officers . . . shall become members [of the police retirement systems established by this chapter] as a condition of their employment. (Emphasis added.) In the pension board's view, the condition referred to is a condition precedent, requiring the board to decide who may become a member before any actual appointments are made. In our view, however, the membership condition is a condition subsequent in which the pension board has no discretion to determine who may become a member. The most reasonable reading of the statutory scheme is that once a person has passed the appropriate mental and physical examinations and been duly appointed a police officer, see § 411.1(2), The Code 1979, he is both entitled and required to become a member of the retirement system. Thus, once an applicant has been properly certified as eligible for appointment, the pension board has no power to reject that person from the retirement system, either before or after his appointment from the certified list.