Opinion
Argued: January 23, 1992.
Decided: June 17, 1992.
Appeal from the Common Pleas Court, Philadelphia County, No. 4244, April Term 1988, Nicholas M. D'Alessandro, J.
Stuart W. Davidson, Caren Litvin Sacks, Alaine S. Williams, Philadelphia, for appellant.
Steven K. Ludwig, Deputy City Sol., for appellee.
Harry Lore, Philadelphia, for Albert Mazzo and John Anderson.
Maria L. Petrillo, Philadelphia, for Bd. of Pensions.
Carol A. Mager, Dawn Getty, Philadelphia, for amicus — The Committee of Seventy.
Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS and CAPPY, JJ.
ORDER
The appellant, Carmen Christy, was denied his pension benefits under the Municipal Retirement System Ordinance of the City of Philadelphia on the basis of alleged criminal misconduct, without ever having been formally charged or convicted. For the reasons stated in the opinion filed today in Mazzo v. Board of Pensions and Retirement of the City of Philadelphia, 531 Pa. 78, 611 A.2d 193 (1992), the denial of benefits was improper. The order of the Commonwealth Court is, accordingly, reversed.
ZAPPALA, J., files a dissenting statement.
For the reasons set forth in my Dissenting Opinion in Mazzo v. Board of Pensions and Retirement of the City of Philadelphia, 531 Pa. 78, 611 A.2d 193 (1992), I would affirm the Order of the Commonwealth Court.