City of Dallas v. Trammell (96 S.W.2d 110, 1936)

JONES, Chief Justice.

This suit was instituted in a district court of Dallas county by appellee, C. W. Tram-mell, a retired police officer of the city of Dallas, against appellants, city of Dallas; a municipal corporation, the board of firemen, policemen, and fire alarm operators, pension fund trustees, the individual members of such board, the city treasurer, the city secretary, and the city auditor, to compel the pension board to restore appellee's monthly stipend of $188.33, the sum to which he was entitled and allowed by the pension board, under the law as it existed at the date of his retirement as chief of police of the city of Dallas, and to recover the sum of $753.32, 4 months’ pay due in monthly payments, which had matured at the time the suit was instituted, and also to recover such monthly payments as would mature at the time the case was tried; certain pensioners who were denied the right to intervene are also appellants. The case was tried to the court, and a judgment entered in favor of appellee, from which this appeal is duly prosecuted by appellants.

The trial court filed very complete findings of fact which are not assailed, and also very elaborate conclusions of law. The findings of fact of the trial court are adopted as the findings of fact by this court, but it is not deemed necessary to set them out in this opinion. -

It is undisputed that, under the pension laws and the pension ordinances of the city of Dallas, appellee, at the time of his retirement, was entitled to a monthly payment of one-half of his pay as chief of police, which was the sum of $188.33, and the pension hoard allowed his retirement application, and placed him on a monthly pension at said sum. Appellee retired September 18, 1935, after 20 years of continuous service ■in the police department of the city of Dallas. The pension laws then in force were enacted in 1933 by the Forty-Third Legislature, and are contained in chapter 94, p. 206, of the Acts of such Legislature (Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. arts 6229-6243). This chapter amended the Acts of 1919 (chapter 10), but made no material change in articles 6234 and 6235 of the Acts of 1919. The pension fund is provided for as follows: (1) By the voluntary act of policemen, firemen, and fire alarm operators, surrendering to the pension fund the right to present payment of 1 per cent, of their monthly pay; (2) by donations made to such fund and by rewards earned by any municipal employee; (3) by. the appropriation of the designated percentage from the general revenues of the city, based on the amount of the gross pay of firemen, policemen, and fire alarm operators.

The 1933 amendment (Acts 1933, 1st Called Sess., c. 4) is codified as article 6243a, with its fifteen sections and is contained in the Second Supplement, Vernon’s Complete Texas Statutes 1934. Section 7 thereof reads: ‘‘Whenever any member of said departments who shall have contributed a portion of his salary, as provided herein, shall have served twenty (20) years or more in either of said departments, he ■may be entitled to be retired from said service upon application, and shall, if the board approves, be entitled to be paid from such funds a monthly pension of one-half