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Chiafos v. Municipal Fire & Police Retirement System of Iowa3/24/1999
On review from the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Glenn E. Pille, Judge.
Appeal from determination that retired police officer was not entitled to statutory accidental disability benefits. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
A former police officer believes he is entitled to accidental disability benefits, not merely to the lesser ordinary disability benefits. The administrative agency, the municipal fire and police retirement system of Iowa, rejected his claim and the district court affirmed the rejection. We also affirm, and vacate a contrary determination by the court of appeals.
Robert Chiafos was a police officer for Marion, Iowa, from December 1968 to March 1995. He applied for accidental disability benefits under Iowa Code section 411.6(5) (1997). Accidental benefits are greater than ordinary benefits provided under Iowa Code section 411.6(3). See City of Cedar Rapids v. Board of Trustees of Mun. Fire & Police Retirement Sys. of Iowa, 572 N.W.2d 919, 922 (Iowa 1998). The board for the retirement system rejected the application after determining Chiafos failed to prove that his disability was caused by performance of his police duties at a definite time and place. The district court, reviewing the matter on Chiafos' petition for certiorari, affirmed the board. The matter is before us on further review from a court of appeals decision reversing the district court. The court of appeals found the board had set an incorrect standard for determining causation. Because we think the board applied the correct standard we vacate the court of appeals decision and affirm the district court.
I. Iowa Code chapter 411 (1997) provides no appeal procedure, so a certiorari action is the appropriate vehicle for challenging the actions of a pension board. Moon v. Board of Trustees of Mun. Fire & Police Retirement Sys. of Iowa, 548 N.W.2d 565, 567 (Iowa 1996). For the writ of certiorari to be sustained, the plaintiff must show that the board acted "illegally" in that it failed to act in accordance with a statute or that its decision was not supported by substantial evidence. Id. Evidence is substantial when a reasonable mind would accept it as adequate to reach the same findings. City of Cedar Rapids v. Municipal Fire & Police Retirement Sys. of Iowa, 526 N.W.2d 284, 287 (Iowa 1995) (quoting Norland v. Iowa Dep't of Job Serv., 412 N.W.2d 904, 913 (Iowa 1987)). Evidence is still substantial even though it would have supported contrary inferences. Id.
II. We have said: " ccording to section 411.6(5), three basic issues are usually present in an accidental disability claim: (1) permanent incapacity; (2) causation by a work duty; and (3) `injury' or `disease.'" City of Cedar Rapids, 572 N.W.2d at 922. Without question Chiafos suffers a permanent incapacity. The question is whether the record supports the board's finding that he failed to establish the second (causation) or third (injury) conditions. We can pass the third issue because the record clearly supports the finding Chiafos failed to establish that his disability resulted from an injury at a definite time and place.
Chiafos listed seven significant physical traumas he experienced during his employment as a police officer:
"1. On December 21, 1972, Chiafos fell backwards onto a frozen snow bank with a two-hundred-pound man on top of him. "2. In 1974, Chiafos suffered a severe leg injury and an upper back injury as the result of a foot pursuit. "3. In 1973 or 1974, Chiafos was hit in the shoulders by a heavy object while trying to break up a bar room brawl. "4. In 1973 or 1974, C
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