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Judicial Rulings

Illinois Supreme Court

No pension for Kerner

Upholding an appellate court decision, the Illinois State Supreme Court ruled September 20 that the son of the late Gov. Otto Kerner is not entitled to collect $9,382 in pension benefits accrued between the time of his father's conviction and death.

The court ruled that the Illinois Pension Code requiring benefits not be paid "to any person who is convicted of any felony relating to or arising out of or in connection with his service as an employee" applies to felonies committed under federal law as well as Illinois law. The purpose of the statute, said the court, was "to discourage official malfeasance by denying the public servant convicted of unfaithfulness to his trust the retirement benefits to which he otherwise would have been entitled."

Kerner's pension benefits were cancelled by the State Employees' Retirement System in 1973 after his racetrack bribery conviction in federal court.

Justices Daniel P. Ward, William G. Clark and Thomas Moran took no part in the consideration or decision of the case, Anton Kerner v. State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois, et al.

Public aid

The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the judgments of the Cook County Circuit Court and the appellate court September 19 in Charles Lawrie v. Department of Public Aid.

The case involved the parents of Charles Lawrie, a mentally retarded adult, and their attempts to receive public assistance for the care of their son at the Beverly Farm in Madison County. The parents sought the department's assistance, offering to pay what the state would not. The court ruled, however, that providers of medical services, such as Beverly Farm, must accept the state's payment for those services as payment in full. The ruling does not allow Lawrie's parents to supplement the state's payment.

The Court, in its decision, cited Sweet v. Department of Public Aid (l977): "The intractable economic, social, and even philosophical problems presented by public welfare assistance programs are not the business of this Court."

Justice Thomas E. Kluczynski took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

November 1978 / Illinois Issues/31


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