Opinion ID: 2634522
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Act unambiguously requires purported pensioner to be a participant, which here requires said person to possess fire fighting duties

Text: At the heart of this case is RCW 41.24.170. Amended several times [5] since it was originally enacted in 1945, it currently provides in relevant part: [W]henever any participant has been a member and served honorably for a period of ten years or more as an active member in any capacity, of any regularly organized fire department or law enforcement agency of any municipality in this state, and which municipality has adopted appropriate legislation allowing its fire fighters or reserve officers to enroll in the retirement pension provisions of this chapter, and the participant has enrolled under the retirement pension provisions and has reached the age of sixty-five years, the board of trustees shall order and direct that he or she be retired and be paid a monthly pension from the principal fund as provided in this section. [6] RCW 41.24.170 (emphasis added). On its face RCW 41.24.170 imposes three requirements a purported pensioner must satisfy in order to be eligible for retirement benefits under the Act: (1) he or she is a participant, (2) he or she is a member of a fire department or law enforcement agency participating in the statewide pension system, and (3) he or she has served honorably for a period of ten years or more as an active member in any capacity for that fire department or law enforcement agency. Id. There is no question both respondents have been active member[s] in any capacity ... of any regularly organized fire department... of any municipality in this state, id., as both have continuously served their respective fire departments. The determinative inquiry here is whether respondents are participant[s] as contemplated by the Act. Definitions provided by the legislature are given controlling effect. Sullivan, 143 Wash.2d at 175, 19 P.3d 1012; Am. Legion Post No. 32 v. City of Walla Walla, 116 Wash.2d 1, 8, 802 P.2d 784 (1991). Participant is a statutory term of art defined as any fire fighter, emergency worker, or reserve officer who is or may become eligible to receive a benefit of any type under the retirement provisions of this chapter, or whose beneficiary may be eligible to receive any such benefit. RCW 41.24.010(10)(b). Neither respondent claims to be an emergency worker or reserve officer, but rather both claim to be fire fighters under the Act. Fire fighter is also statutorily defined: Fire fighter includes any fire fighter or emergency worker who is a member of any fire department of any municipality but shall not include full time, paid fire fighters who are members of the Washington law enforcement officers' and fire fighters' retirement system, with respect to periods of service rendered in such capacity. RCW 41.24.010(3). The Court of Appeals read this definition as self-defining and chose to ignore it. Schrom, 117 Wash.App. at 547, 72 P.3d 239. The Board asks us to adopt the agency conclusion of law that respondents are ineligible because they never actively engaged in fire suppression activities. Respondents counter and urge us to adopt the Court of Appeals' analysis and hold they are participant[s] because their activities were significant and continuous. Id. at 550, 72 P.3d 239. We conclude the Court of Appeals erred by ignoring the definition of fire fighter. The statutory term of art fire fighter limits itself and consequently chapter 41.24 RCW benefits to volunteer and part-time fire fighters, thus excluding full-time fire fighters who are covered under the Washington Law Enforcement Officers' and Fire Fighters' Retirement System Act (LEOFF), chapter 41.26 RCW. Yet it does not dispense with the plain and ordinary meaning of fire fighter, which we derive from a standard dictionary if possible. State v. Taylor, 150 Wash.2d 599, 602, 80 P.3d 605 (2003); Sullivan, 143 Wash.2d at 175, 19 P.3d 1012; Am. Legion Post No. 32, 116 Wash.2d at 8, 802 P.2d 784. We conclude this may be accomplished here, as the dictionary defines fire fighter as one who fights fires. WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 855 (2002). Applying this ordinary meaning to the term, it is clear a person asserting pension eligibility must, at minimum, fight fires in order to be a fire fighter. Yet fire fighters need not hold the fire hose 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to gain pension eligibility, as RCW 41.24.170 extends eligibility for those fire fighters who have been active member[s] in any capacity[ ] of any regularly organized fire department ... of any municipality in this state. (Emphasis added.) Limiting RCW 41.24.170 merely to only those fire fighters who hold the fire hose would disregard the remainder of the statutory provision at issue. Under this view the volunteer fire fighter who is fortunate enough to never confront a raging inferno, yet trains daily for such a contingency, would be ineligible for pension benefits as he or she would never have actually fought a fire. This construction would undoubtedly be absurd and therefore impermissible. State v. J.P., 149 Wash.2d 444, 450, 69 P.3d 318 (2003). Keeping this in mind, we conclude to be a fire fighter under the Actand therefore qualify as the requisite participant for pension eligibilitythe person claiming eligibility must, at minimum, possess some duties that include fighting fires if a fire were to ever occur. Our view that the dictionary definition requires the purported pensioner to possess fire fighting duties is buttressed by examining all the legislature has said in the provision at issue and related statutes, a task we also employ to ascertain a statute's plain meaning. See State v. C.G., 150 Wash.2d 604, 609, 80 P.3d 594 (2003); Thurston County v. Cooper Point Ass'n, 148 Wash.2d 1, 12, 57 P.3d 1156 (2002). First the Act expressly provides the trust fund established in the state treasury which finances all benefitsrelief and retirementis for the benefit of the participants covered by the Act. RCW 41.24.030(1) (emphasis added). Second the statutory requisite to be a participant appears not only in the retirement portions of the Act but also with the relief portions as well, which apply when a participant is injured, or killed during the performance of his or her duties. See, e.g., RCW 41.24.150 (disability benefits to be paid if a participant becomes physically or mentally disabled, injured or sick, in consequence or as the result of the performance of his or her duties); RCW 41.24.160 (death benefits payable when a participant dies as a result of performing his or her duties); RCW 41.24.210 (time limitation for participant to file report to obtain benefits for illness or injuries sustained performing his or her duties), RCW 41.24.220 (principal fund of Act to pay for hospitalization costs of participant incurred treating injuries sustained performing his or her duties); RCW 41.24.230 (principal fund to pay for burial and funeral expenses of participant who dies as a result of performing his or her duties). These statutory provisions therefore contemplate the recipients of these relief benefits possess duties and engage in activities that are prone to causing injury or death. While fighting fires unquestionably falls in this category, the same cannot be said for secretaries and/or clerical workers who simply do not confront similar perils. And since the legislature employed the same term to describe the class eligible for retirement pension benefits, we presume the legislature intended to reference that same class. Sullivan, 143 Wash.2d at 175, 19 P.3d 1012.