In a case involving plaintiff Mark Pananos, a high school mathematics teacher, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a Massachusetts public employee who previously forfeited their retirement allowance under M.G.L. c. 32, § 15(4) is permanently ineligible to receive any retirement allowance in a Massachusetts public employee contributory retirement system.

Mr. Pananos served as a mathematics teacher at Holyoke High School from September 1979 until June 1996, when he was terminated for stealing over $13,000 in ticket revenues from school sporting events. As a result of his later guilty plea, he forfeited the pension he earned with the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System (MTRS) under M.G.L. c. 32, § 15(4), which states, “In no event shall any member after final conviction of a criminal offense involving violation of the laws applicable to his office or position, be entitled to a retirement allowance…”

After working as a private school teacher for several years, Mr. Pananos came back to the public school system in 2005 and began paying into the MTRS towards a new pension. In 2016, during an audit, the MTRS concluded he was ineligible for a pension because of his prior forfeiture, and refunded his contributions. Mr. Pananos appealed MTRS’s decision, which was affirmed by the Division of Administrative Law Appeals and the Contributory Retirement Appeals Board (CRAB), before proceeding to the Superior Court.

Mr. Pananos contested the CRAB’s decision as a misinterpretation of M.G.L. c. 32, § 15(4) and a violation of the “excessive fines” clause of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Court disagreed with him unequivocally. The Court determined that under the plain meaning of M.G.L. c. 32, § 4 any member so convicted could never receive any retirement allowance, not simply the retirement allowance earned pursuant to their office or position. It further found that Mr. Pananos could not establish any of the elements of a claim under the Eighth Amendment, as the MTRS’s decision did not constitute a “fine” because he never had any right to a pension with the MTRS after his 1996 forfeiture, and, even if it were a fine, that fine was not “excessive” in light of the Court’s estimation of the gravity of his crime.

While Superior Court decisions are not binding beyond the case at hand, should other Massachusetts courts adopt its reasoning or higher courts affirm this or a similar decision, then any member of a Massachusetts contributory retirement system (i.e., any eligible state or municipal employee in Massachusetts) who is convicted of a crime “involving violation of the laws applicable to his office or position” and who, consequently, forfeits their pension under M.G.L. c. 32, § 15, may never receive a pension from any further such employment in Massachusetts, past or future, no matter how long they work.

This case should impress upon any Massachusetts public employee who is subject to criminal investigation, the importance of seeking not only criminal defense counsel, but of consulting counsel to advise you on the impact of any subsequent plea or verdict on your retirement allowance.