Goodwin v. Board of Trustees

In Goodwin v. Board of Trustees (1946) 72 Cal.App.2d 445, a fireman of the City of Oakland who had resigned prior to becoming eligible for a pension sought recovery of his contributions upon the theory that he had received nothing for his money. In rejecting that contention, Justice Peters wrote, at pages 450-451: "Nor is it correct to say that during the period 1933-1943 the firemen received nothing for their deductions unless they retired. The plan set up by the charter did not only provide for retirement based upon age and years of service. In addition it provided for retirement, regardless of age and years of service, for a fireman disabled in the course of his employment. It also called for pensions for the families of firemen if the firemen were killed in the service. To this extent the plan called for a limited type of protection in the nature of accident insurance. The deductions made each month were paid, therefore, not only towards an ultimate annuity to be paid upon reaching the age of retirement, but also for this accident insurance. As long as there was no provision in the charter for a refund of these funds in the event of voluntary resignation before reaching retirement age, it must be held that under the type of plan here involved the deductions were in the nature of premiums for the types of protection above outlined."