Retirement Board must correct mistakes and grant full service

In the matter of Debra Sheehan v. Beverly Retirement Board and Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System (Docket No. CR-22-0221), the Division of Administrative Law Appeals reversed the decision of the Beverly Retirement Board (BRB). The case arose after it was discovered that Ms. Sheehan, a part-time physical therapy assistant employed by the Beverly Public Schools, had been mistakenly enrolled in the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System (MTRS) from 2004 to 2020. Upon discovering the error, she was returned to the BRB, where she originally belonged. Ms. Sheehan sought to receive ten years of creditable service for that period based on BRB regulations, which would have applied had she remained correctly enrolled. However, the BRB denied her request, contending it could only grant the six years of service accepted by the MTRS, and asserted that the MTRS and the City of Beverly were responsible for the mistake. The administrative magistrate determined that fault was irrelevant to the statutory obligation to correct retirement system errors and found that BRB must restore Ms. Sheehan to the position she would have occupied had the error not occurred. The magistrate ordered BRB to grant her the full ten years of creditable service, stating that disputes over inter-system liability must be resolved through procedures outlined in Chapter 32 and are not properly addressed in this appeal.