Dunn v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board

John Dunn (Dunn), a Plymouth County correctional case worker, died in 1992 of lung cancer. Five months before his death, he had filed a change of beneficiary form with the Plymouth County retirement board (Plymouth board), intended to exclude his wife, Geraldine Dunn (who had left him in September, 1989, and had in 1991 retained an attorney to institute divorce proceedings), in favor of Shelby Reno, whom Dunn listed as his fiancée. Both women filed claims with the *360Plymouth board for benefits (in this case, a return of John Dunn’s total accumulated contributions, with interest). The case is…