Court Opinion

ID: 9481409
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:18:14.330111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:18.014568
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
This case requires us to review the district court’s dismissal of the plaintiff’s case on the ground that the complaint did not state a claim upon which relief could be granted. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). In reviewing such a dismissal, we are obliged to accept the allegations in the complaint as true. See Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). Here, put quite simply, Mr. Schroeder alleges that the individual defendants willfully withheld a medical certification from the Retirement Board and thus delayed the commencement of the retirement benefits to which, under the law of Illinois, Mr. Schroeder was entitled. Consequently, Mr. Schroeder alleges that he suffered significant economic, physical, and emotional deprivation for which he remains uncompensated despite the later award of retirement benefits retroactive to the date of application.
I cannot agree that the complaint does not allege adequately the deprivation of a cognizable property right. The Illinois statutory scheme, when read as a whole, clearly contemplates that, if a firefighter is separated from the service due to injury, he may apply for retirement benefits in order to ensure that misfortune in the line of duty is not compounded by economic ruin. Here, the enjoyment of these benefits, vested by law, was postponed—according to the complaint—not by the normal delay of bureaucratic processing but by the willful sabotage of that process by government officials. Whatever the time frame contemplated for the processing of the application by the statutory scheme, it certainly does not include an expectation of a delay caused by such interference.
*963It does appear, however, that Mr. Schroeder was not without an adequate remedy under state law in the form of mandamus. That remedy afforded Mr. Sehroeder an adequate remedy against the random and unauthorized acts of the individual defendants. See Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 110 S.Ct. 975, 108 L.Ed.2d 100 (1990); Easter House v. Felder, 910 F.2d 1387 (7th Cir.1990) (en banc). Accordingly, he cannot maintain an action for the deprivation of his right to due process of law under the federal constitution. On this basis, I join the judgment of the court.