Court Opinion

ID: 9757333
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:33:26.104365+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:38.263527
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Cohen :
Both the Police and Firemen’s Pension Funds of the City of Sharon were established under “The Third Class City Code,” Act of June 23,1931, P. L. 932, §4301 et seq., as amended, 53 P.S. §39301 et seq. That act *648nowhere authorized the establishment of either a system of allocation or the payment of benefits in a lump sum to the widow or estate of a deceased member. The invalid segregation portions of the ordinance are such vital features of both funds and are so essential to the operation of the funds, especially the provisions allowing a retiree to select his own retirement pay, that both ordinances in their entirety must be declared invalid. As this Court stated in GenMnger v. New Castle, 368 Pa. 547, 84 A. 2d 303 (1951), . , an ordinance must be in conformity with the provisions of the enabling statutes; if it conflicts therewith, it is void.” In other words, being a creature of the General Assembly, a municipality has no power to enact ordinances except as authorized by enabling legislation of that body. Allentown School District Mercantile Taco Case, 870 Pa. 161, 87 A. 2d 480 (1952). A municipality holds its property in trust for public uses, and its funds may be used only for valid purposes authorized by enabling legislation. Passage of an ordinance in violation of specific enabling acts does not give rise to enforceable rights thereunder. Accord, Eisenberger v. Harrisburg Police Pension Commission, 400 Pa. 418, 421, 162 A, 2d 347, 348 (1960). Accordingly, all rights under either ordinance are unenforceable and we may declare that no claim thereunder may be made by any retired police officer or fireman, or by the widow or estate of any member of either force.
The only right which any contributor to either illegal fund, or his beneficiary, may enforce is to have paid back to him an amount equal to the money paid into the fund by him, plus compound interest at six percent, less the sums received by him from the fund. Any other disposition, including that ordained by the majority, is unlawful, unwise, and a waste of the assets of a municipal corporation. As I view the matter, the City of Sharon is a trustee ex maleficio of the funds *649unlawfully received from its police and firemen and, as such, is liable neither more nor less than any other trustee ex maleficio.
I dissent.