CopyCited 5 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2010 Fla. App. LEXIS 10448, 2010 WL 2788287
...Petersburg Police Pension Board of Trustees (collectively, the City) appeal a final summary judgment finding that former police officers who left service prior to vesting in the City's police pension fund were entitled to a refund of their contributions to the fund. We affirm. Sections
185.19,
185.08, and
185.35, Florida Statutes (2000), are central to the parties' dispute. Section
185.19 provides as follows: (1) If any police officer leaves the service of the municipality before accumulating *324 aggregate time of 10 years toward retirement and before being eligible to retire under the provisions of this chapter, such...
...ordinance. Id. Dulje has no bearing on the issue before us. The former police officers advance a more persuasive and simple argument: chapter 185 is not ambiguous and the legislative intent is easily seen in the plain language of the statute. Under section 185.19(1), the former police officers " shall be entitled to a refund of all of his or her contributions ......
...rvice, must the fund refund to him 100% of his contributions notwithstanding the fact that the cash value of the insurance policy is less than his contributions? Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 58-141 (1958). In construing the "shall be entitled to" language of section
185.19(1) in the context of section
185.06, which permits trustees of the fund to invest in insurance or annuity contracts, the Attorney General concluded: [Section
185.06] has no direct bearing upon the rights of participants in the fund....
...We see no reason why the requirements of section
185.35, relating to premium tax income, should have a bearing on the rights of the former police officers here. They "shall be entitled to" their contributions without interest and less any benefits paid. §
185.19(1)....
...In the context of the contributions, the Legislature's use of the phrase "shall be entitled to" is a command and not a matter of convenience. The City next argues that requiring a refund creates an unconstitutional unfunded mandate under article 10, section 14 of the Florida Constitution. [1] We are not persuaded. Section 185.19(1) does not create a benefit or enhance the status of the officers....
...v. Dep't of Children & Families,
816 So.2d 194 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002). We need not delve further, however. The City concedes *327 that the former police officers are entitled to their refunds but if and only when funds are available. We cannot say that section
185.19 subjects the former police officers to such a state of uncertainty....
