Court Opinion

ID: 9549611
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:22:05.618509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:36.646054
License: Public Domain

WOLFE, Chief Justice
(concurring in the results).
I concur in the results reached in the majority opinion. While I agree with much of the reasoning of Mr. Justice Crockett, I prefer to state separately my reasons for resolving the two main contentions of the appellants against them.
As to the contention that the Repeal Act impairs vested rights of Mr. Hansen to receive a pension upon retirement, *65it should be observed that under Driggs v. Utah Teachers’ Retirement Board, 105 Utah 417, 142 P. 2d 657, and all other retirement cases heretofore decided by this court, no vested rights accrue until the employee has fulfilled all the conditions precedent to the entitlement of a pension, viz. attained a certain age; been in employment a requisite number of years; made the required contributions from his salary; etc. The holding out to an employee by an employer that if he will serve him for a requisite number of years and make the required contributions from his wages, he will be given a pension upon reaching a certain age, constitutes an offer, a valid acceptance to which is made only by meeting and fulfilling all of the conditions imposed. Until all the conditions precedent have been met, there is no contractual obligation between the employer (in this case the State and the County) and the employee. The Legislature in the instant case by providing for the liquidation of the State retirement system has prevented Mr. Hansen from accepting his employer’s offer by timely withdrawing it prior to its acceptance by Mr. Hansen. The only persons who have vested rights in the system are the retired employees. No contention is made in this case that the Legislature has abrogated their rights. But as to employees who have not yet met the conditions precedent to the receipt of a pension, the Legislature was under no restraint in providing for the liquidation of the retirement system, except that they were entitled to a return of their contributions.
The contention of the appellants that the Repeal Act unreasonably discriminates between employees having less than ten years of service and employees having more than ten but less than fifteen years of service, must fail. Appellants argue that the Legislature should have treated both class of employees alike and not conferred greater benefits on one class than the other class. With respect to this contention, it should be borne in mind that the Legislature was under no obligation to provide benefits for either class. It could have provided simply for the return of contribu*66tions to employees in both classes. Instead, the Legislature saw fit to deal more generously with employees having between ten and fifteen years of service than it did with employees having less than ten years of service. This treatment affords no ground for complaint on the part of the latter class of employees. It is doubtful whether a person who is not the recipient of a bounty may in law complain that another person has been provided with a windfall. At any rate, employees with more than ten years of service but less than fifteen years form a class differentiable from employees with less than ten years of service. See State v. Mason, 94 Utah 501, 78 P. 2d 920, 117 A. L. R. 330. It seems obvious that tenure should be the very fundamental and logical basis for classification in such a scheme for liquidation.
HENRIOD, J., concurs in the result.