MOUNT VERNON -- The Fifth District Appellate Court affirmed a ruling out of St. Clair County Circuit Court that found East St. Louis School District 189 did not violate the Wage Payment and Collection Act when it did not provide severance pay for a retired administrator.
On March 5, Justice David K. Overstreet delivered the ruling affirming a decision in favor of the district. Justices Thomas M. Welch and James R. Moore concurred.
Plaintiff Daphne Brown-Wright filed the suit alleging promissory estoppel, breach of implied contract, or violation of Wage Payment and Collection Act.
Appeals court affirms severance pay ruling in favor of East St. Louis School District 189
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Brown-Wright alleges the district failed to comply with its policy to pay a percentage of the accumulated sick leave and severance pay upon her retirement.
According to the ruling, Brown-Wright served as a teacher for the district from 1975 to 1998 and again as an administrator in the district from 2002 until June 2012 when she announced her retirement. In 2015 Brown-Wright filed suit, alleging the district owed her $48,000 of accumulated sick days and severance.
However, Overstreet found that Brown-Wright's "general understanding that she would be entitled to sick leave severance if she accumulated sick leave prior to her retirement failed to prove the existence of the essential elements of a contract implied in fact, conveyed by implication from the parties’ conduct, requiring the district to consider her non-continuous service to the district in order to calculate sick leave severance upon her retirement."
The district argued that Brown-Wright was not entitled to additional pay based on a 2006 policy, which included a provision regarding severance pay for administrators. Brown had left the district in 1998 and then returned in 2002.
Under the policy, “prior, non-continuous service years with the district and unused accumulated sick leave for those service years are not considered in determining eligibility and calculating the amount of severance pay, if any, for administrators under such policy," the district argued.
Additionally, the district argued that one month after Brown-Wright's June 2012 retirement she was sent a letter explaining that, based on the provision within the policy, "she was ineligible for accumulated sick leave severance because her unused sick leave accumulated over less than 11 service years prior to her retirement."
The appellate court ruling states that Brown-Wright had been given severance pay for accumulated sick leave in 1998 when she left the district.