Court Opinion

ID: 9697121
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:06:41.35999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:29.471026
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result based on the Commonwealth Court Opinion in this case authored by Judge Francis A. Barry. That opinion is attached to this concurring opinion as Appendix A.
APPENDIX A
LOCAL 302, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS et al., Appellants, v. THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN et al. and PENNSYLVANIA MUNICIPAL RETIREMENT BOARD et al., Appellees.
No. 1569 C.D. 1982.
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
Submitted on Briefs June 6, 1984.
Decided Sept. 6, 1984.
Before WILLIAMS, BARRY and BLATT, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
BARRY, Judge.
*291This appeal results from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County which granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the City of Allentown (City) and dismissed a cause of action filed by Local 302, International Association of Fire Fighters, the collective bargaining representative for the City’s firefighters and Michael Roxbury, Daniel Sell and Glen Kelchner, individual City firefighters.
Certain facts were established by stipulation of the parties in October of 1978. In 1969, the City, by ordinance, established the Paid Fireman’s Pension Fund (Pension Fund). In 1976, the City, again by ordinance, amended the ordinance establishing the Pension Fund and elected to join the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (Retirement System) which had been established by the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law, Act of February 1, 1974, P.L. 34, 53 P.S. §§ 881.101-881.501 (Supp. 1984-85). According to the amendment, the City would enroll all firefighters hired after June 8,1976, in the Retirement System, allowing all previously hired firefighters to remain in the Pension Fund. The Retirement System and the Pension Fund differ on both benefits and contributions.
The individual firefighters and their union then filed a petition for review in this Court, naming as respondents, in addition to the City, the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Board (Board) and certain members of the Board. The firefighters sought an order declaring invalid the 1976 ordinance requiring all firefighters hired after June 8, 1976, to join the Retirement System; they also sought an order directing the City to enroll all firefighters in the Pension Fund. Finally, the firefighters sought to enjoin the Board from accepting contributions from the City on behalf of the newest firefighters.
After the October, 1978 stipulation of all material facts had been filed, both sides filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Following oral arguments, this Court transferred the case to the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, holding we had neither appellate jurisdiction as the Board had not entered any final order nor original jurisdic*292tion because the Board and the named individual members were not indispensible parties. Local 302, International Association of Fire Fighters v. City of Allentown, 55 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 599, 423 A.2d 1119 (1980).
Following the transfer to the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, the parties again proceeded on the stipulation of facts and cross-motions for summary judgment. The trial court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment and this appeal followed.
Appellant’s argue, inter alia, that the trial court erred in holding that the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law permits the existence of two separate retirement plans for the City firefighters. Section 303 of the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law, in pertinent part, provides:
Where a municipality elects to join the system established by this act, and is then maintaining a retirement or pension system or systems covering its employes in whole or in part, those employes so covered, and employes thereafter eligible to join such pension systems shall not become members of the retirement system established by this act, unless at the time the municipality elects to join the system, the members of each such existing retirement or pension system shall, by the affirmative vote of seventy-five per cent of all the members of each pension system, elect to be covered by the retirement system established by this act. At any time thereafter, within a period of three years after the municipality has elected to join the system, but not thereafter, the members of an existing retirement or pension system may, in like manner, elect to join the system established by this act____

If a municipality elects to cover its municipal firemen under the provisions of the system created by this Article III, then each municipal fireman shall be required to become a member of the system.

53 P.S. § 881.303 (Supp.1984-85) (emphasis added). Appellants argue that the emphasized portion of Section 303 *293evidences the legislature’s intention that all firefighters of a municipality must belong to the same pension plan.
The City and the trial court, however, had a different view, reasoning that a reading of the entire Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law shows no legislative prohibition against two separate pension plans for a municipality’s firefighters. The City argues that allowing seventy-five per cent of the members of the Pension Fund to force the remaining twenty-five per cent to join the Retirement System would violate the rights of the minority; therefore, according to this argument, requiring such a vote would emasculate the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law and its benefits to the municipality including, inter alia, the ability to join a more actuarily sound pension system.1 These arguments, however, ignore one important clause of Section 303, which states, “[i]f a municipality elects to cover its municipal firemen under the provisions of the system created by this Article III, then each municipal fireman shall be required to become a member of the system.” 53 P.S. § 881.303 (Supp.1984-85) (emphasis added.)
The Statutory Construction Act of 1972, 1 Pa.C.S. § 1921(b) (Supp.1964-83) provides, “When the words of a statute are clear and free from all ambiguity, the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit.” We believe the aforequoted portion of Section 303 is clear and can be interpreted in only one manner; i.e., where a municipality wishes to join the Retirement System, and already has its firefighters enrolled in another plan, either all of the firefighters must become members or the firefighters as a whole must be excluded from joining the Retirement System. This conclusion is buttressed by re*294viewing Section 303, especially the first paragraph thereof. The legislature was very specific in covering all contingencies. Had the legislature wished to permit the existence of two pension plans, one of which was the Retirement System, it could have done so in a concise fashion. The Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law does not do so; in fact, the legislature included the previously mentioned language of Section 303 which leads to the opposite inescapable conclusion.
Accordingly, the trial court erred in granting the City’s motion for summary judgment.

. As no election was held in this case, we are not presented with a question concerning the rights of a minority who would wish to remain members of an existing system. Accordingly, we express no opinion on that question. As to the fiscal integrity of any existing system, it is well settled that the terms and conditions of such a plan may be altered if necessary to protect the actuarial soundness of a plan. Harvey v. Retirement Board of Allegheny County, 392 Pa. 421, 141 A.2d 197 (1958); Eisenberger v. Harrisburg Police Pension Fund, 400 Pa. 418, 162 A.2d 347 (1960).