BBP Prevails in Illinois Supreme Court on Behalf of the Chicago Policemen's Retirement Board in Duty Disability Case

Marking the end of a near-three-year dispute, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously reversed the Appellate Court and affirmed the decision of the Retirement Board of the Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago (“Retirement Board”) in a Chicago policeman’s duty disability case.

The Supreme Court’s decision was issued just over a year after the Appellate Court had overturned the Retirement Board’s decision. BBP successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for leave to appeal by arguing that the Appellate Court had misapplied a prior decision of the Supreme Court in Kouzoukas v. Retirement Board of the Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago, 234 Ill. 2d 446 (2009).

The Appellate Court had primarily relied on the premise from Kouzoukas that a claimant cannot be denied disability benefits by a pension board if the claimant’s employer does not offer him or her a position for reinstatement, as doing so would place the claimant in an “untenable catch-22.” BBP successfully argued that there were material distinctions between Kouzoukas and the case at hand, and that such a requirement would eviscerate the need for pension boards throughout the state to conduct hearings on duty disability claims.

The State’s highest court agreed, noting that an application of Kouzoukas’s “catch-22” premise “would effectively be saying that whenever an officer is not offered a position within the Chicago Police Department because of a disability, the Board must award him a disability pension. ... Such a requirement has no foundation in the statute.” The Supreme Court also concluded that “it is for the Board, not the Chicago Police Department, to determine that eligibility [for disability benefits].”

Vincent D. Pinelli

Burke Burns & Pinelli, Ltd. partner Vincent D. Pinelli argued the case on behalf of the Retirement Board and was assisted in preparing the petition for leave to appeal and in the drafting of the briefs by associate Jack T. Grochowski.

For a copy of the Illinois Supreme Court decision, click here: Moreland v. Retirement Board of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of the City of Chicago, 2025 IL 131343

BBP’s victory in the Illinois Supreme Court came shortly after another favorable pension board decision secured by the Firm in Budlove v. Retirement Board of the County Employees' and Officers' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Cook County, et al., 2025 IL App (1st) 242335-U.