Christensen v. Minneapolis Municipal Employees Retirement Board

SIMONETT, Justice.

This appeal raises the question of whether a retired public employee’s pension may be discontinued by an act of the legislature changing the eligibility requirements. The trial court, believing itself bound by earlier decisions of this court characterizing a government pension as a gratuity, held that the legislature was not prohibited by the constitution from imposing, as to employees already retired, an age requirement of 60 years before benefits could be paid where previously there had been no age requirement. We conclude that the gratuity approach no longer accurately…