SALEM — The state's highest court will decide whether a former city worker qualified for a full disability retirement because she suffered a heart attack after being told her job was being eliminated.
The Supreme Judicial Court is tentatively set to hear arguments Nov. 3 in the case involving Claire Cole, a former secretary in the public services department.
At issue are two legal questions:
whether Cole's heart attack was sustained "as a result of and while in the performance of her duties," which would qualify her for full accidental disability retirement benefits;
and whether the city is protected from having to pay benefits because it was simply conducting a legitimate personnel action.
A Lawrence Superior Court judge ruled last year that Cole was entitled to the full pension, putting her in the same category as a police officer or firefighter injured in the line of duty.
The city, fearing the case could become a legal precedent, appealed.
The Supreme Judicial Court saw the case pending in the Appeals Court and decided to take up the issue now, rather than wait for an Appeals Court decision. It has also solicited friend-of-the-court briefs from others interested in the issue.
In March 2000, then-Mayor Stan Usovicz decided that Cole's position would be eliminated from the city budget in the coming fiscal year, which would begin in July. Cole's supervisor told her about the pending budget cut and recommended she start looking for a new job.
Cole was visibly upset when she left work that day. A half-hour later, she suffered a heart attack and never returned to her job.
She later applied for a disability pension, which would have paid her 72 percent of her salary, instead of the much lower percentage she would have received for retiring at 60.
The Salem Retirement Board initially went along with the request, but the state retirement system twice rejected the claim, leading the local board to reconsider — and touching off an eight-year legal battle that has outlived Cole, who died in 2003.
Cole's attorney, Paul Apple-baum, has pointed to a state medical panel of heart specialists who looked at Cole's medical records and concluded that the heart attack could have been triggered by the stress of bad news.
Cole had also argued that she was under stress because of a strained relationship with a co-worker in the office.
History of health problems
City officials and lawyers have countered that Cole had suffered health problems for years and had used an unusually high number of sick days — 327 over the course of her 25 years with the city. They contend that the heart attack had nothing to do with her job, and that the city should not be held liable for simply delivering bad news about a budget decision.
A state appeals board sided with Cole, and the city appealed in Superior Court, where a judge ruled last fall that the full disability pension was warranted.
This is the second time this year the Supreme Judicial Court has taken up a local retirement case that has statewide implications.
Last spring, the court heard arguments in the case of retired Beverly fire Chief Kenneth Pelonzi, who wanted to include the value of a city-owned car he was allowed to drive in calculating his total pension benefit. The court ruled in May that he and other retired public employees are not entitled to include the value of the car in their pensions.
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