González Rivera v. Teachers' Retirement Board
González Rivera v. Teachers' Retirement Board
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Teachers’ Retirement Board appeals to this Court from the judgment rendered by the Superior Court, San Juan Part, ordering it to pay $7,940 to appellee for unpaid pensions, deducting from this amount the salaries received by him for work rendered in the Treasury Department from October 1, 1936 to December 31, 1951. In support of this appeal,- said Board assigns the commission of three errors by the trial court, namely: (1) in not considering the fact that the case involves a review sui generis which should have been filed within a reasonable-term and not fifteen (15) years after the administrative decision had been rendered; (2) in concluding (a) that the pension was suspended not because petitioner recovered from the chronic enteritis which originally caused the granting of the pension but because he was not suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and (b) that the medical examinations did not show that petitioner was
In order to determine the issue it is necessary to make a brief statement of the facts of the case.
On May 6, 1933, ■ and by order of the Pension Board, Dr. F.. de Juan informed the Board by letter that petitioner suffered at that time from chronic enteritis and therefore he was disabled to practice teaching in Puerto Rico. On June 30, 1933, the Board notified petitioner in writing that he hád been granted a pension for physical disability of $240 a year beginning the first of the following month of July. This pension was granted pursuant to Act No. 68 of May 8, 1928. The record shows in detail the X-ray reports, medical examinations and others practiced on petitioner by Dr. García Cabrera in relation to “his examination to request a pension for physical disability in the Association of the Employees of the Insular Government.” In 1946, pursuant to § 13(c) of Act No. 161 of May 10, 1945
“Gall Bladder — The gall bladder is round, at the level of the 11th dorsal vertebra of average size and of normal homogeneous density. After the fatty meal evacuation of the dye is satisfactory. Conclusion: Normal gall bladder.
“Gastro Intestinal Series: Preliminary study of the chest shows no gross abnormality of the intra thoracic organs. Fluoroscopic and radiographic study of the stomach and small intestine shows no intrinsic defect or functional disturbance of the stomach; the pylorus is long and narrow but offers no obstruction.
“The duodenal bulb and the rest of the small intestine appear normal. Conclusions: Pyloric hypertrophy with slight stenosis and with no mucosal lesion.”
On March 12, 1946 the Board informed petitioner about the final conclusions of the medical report of February of that year explaining that in view of the fact that “The ailment which caused the physical disability has disappeared” petitioner’s pension would cease pursuant to the provisions of § 13 (c) of Act No. 161 of 1945. And after the examina
It was not until August 29, 1962 that the petitioner filed the action for mandamus which we are considering, after having (1) requested on November 20, 1961 permission from the said Board to examine his record, (2) examined it on February 27, 1962, and (3) learned therefrom that his pension had been suspended in 1946 because he no longer suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis when the same had been originally granted because he was suffering from chronic enteritis. On the same day, February 27, 1962, the petitioner requested the Board to restore his pension and on August 24, 1962 said Board denied this petition.
The oral evidence in this case was that of two medical experts. Dr. Garcia Cabrera testified that “In the gastrointestinal study made, if the gentleman (the petitioner) would have being suffering from chronic enteritis it would have appeared.” He added that a person suffering from such disease could not give a normal result of gall bladder and gastrointestinal system; that “There is no evidence here of chronic intestinal evidence (sic)”; that when he examined petitioner (in 1946) he was not suffering from chronic enteritis. On cross-examination he admitted that the conclusion of his report was that petitioner was not suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, but answering questions of the trial judge he added that examination in these cases are extensive. “We do not limit ourselves to the lungs. We examine the entire system. We consider the patient in its organic and physiological entirety.” Over appellant’s objection, Dr. Garcia Cabrera’s report of the examination practiced by him on petitioner in 1933 was admitted in evidence. Finally, and at the request of appellee, Dr. José M. Berio testified that chronic enteritis means chronic diarrhea which can be limited to the small intestine or to the large intestine; that in the report of the medical examination performed on peti
There was proof that petitioner worked in the Treasury Department from October 1, 1936, to December 31, 1951 but no evidence whatsoever was introduced of his income after said date.
The trial judge based his decision ordering payment of the unpaid pensions since the Board discontinued them in 1946 but reduced by the amount of the salaries received by petitioner from the Treasury Department up to December 31, 1951, when “The documentary evidence introduced by the parties analyzed in relation to the testimony of Dr. J. M. Berio showed that neither by the first examination nor by the second it could be affirmed that petitioner was no longer suffering from chronic enteritis which, as we stated, was the disease which served as basis for the Teachers’ Pension Board to grant petitioner a pension of $20 per month.”
We shall consider jointly the first and the third assign
This question was raised in the trial court and the latter decided that the action was filed within the legal term for petitioner filed it a month after his petition that his pension be restored because it had been discontinued on the basis of a disability other than the one he was suffering was denied. We support that the month to which said court made reference is the month between August 24, 1962 when the Board denied the last request made-by petitioner that his pension be restored, and the date of the petition for mandamus in this case. Appellee further argues, that the Board induced him to believe that he suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis; that said Board kept him ignorant of the true disease he suffered and for which he was granted the pension in-1933 until it permitted appellee to examine his ■ record in 1961 when he found out, for the first time, that the cause of his disability was not pulmonary tuberculosis but chronic- enteritis as diagnosed by Dr. de Juan in 1933.
The facts of the case do not reveal, in our opinion, a deliberate concealment by the Board of petitioner’s suffering from chronic enteritis diagnosed in 1933. They rather show that on account of petitioner’s error, the examinations practiced on him in 1946 and 1947 were concentrated in determining whether he was still suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and because of inadvertence on the part of the physician examiner and of the Board, it was not revealed then that the medical records of petitioner which were kept by the Board, showed that the reasons for the pension was disability because of chronic enteritis and not pulmonary tuberculosis. Since chronic enteritis is a disease the physical symptoms of which are manifest and produce intense discomfort, we must assume that if petitioner was still suffering from it in 1946 and 1947, he would have informed the physicians who examined him then about the symptoms he suf
We conclude, therefore, that the fact that petitioner waited 15 years to request leave to examine his record in the Board having discovered then the alleged error on which he bases his petition constitutes an unjustified delay in the filing of this action, whether it be a petition for mandamus or for review sui generis. Rivera v. Pons, Commissioner, 66 P.R.R. 877 (1947); Urdaz v. Padin, Commissioner, 48 P.R.R. 297 (1935).
For the reasons stated, the judgment rendered by the Superior Court, San Juan Part, in this case on February 14, 1964, will be reversed, and by virtue thereof the petition filed therein will be dismissed.
The aforesaid provision of Act No. 161 in its pertinent part reads as follows:
“Teachers pensioned for physical disability in accordance with this Act or any other previous pension Act, shall be periodically examined by a physician appointed by the board. If such disability disappears, payment of the pension shall be continued for a period of six (6) months counting from the date of the medical examination declaring him cured of the disability.”
A similar provision has been included in § 30 of the Teachers’ Retirement Act, Act No. 218 of May 6, 1951 (18 L.P.R.A. § 349) where in addition it is provided that “Teachers retired for physical disability shall cease to receive their life annuity as soon as such reason ceases to exist or as soon as they engage themselves in remunerated occupations, provided such remuneration exceeds ■ said life annuity.”
The laws governing the rights of the parties in this case do not provide for any proceeding in the courts to review the determination of the Teachers’ Retirement Board. Cf. Correa Suárez v. Teachers’ Retirement Board, 88 P.R.R. 571 (1963). Unless we can find in the law an indication
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.