High Court Rejects Bid for Increased Benefits to Firefighter Widows

A divided Illinois Supreme Court last week ruled that the widows of Chicago firefighters who died prior to 2004 cannot benefit from a legislative change in the method for calculating pensions that went into effect that year and that would have increased the compensation owed to them.Martin Holland, the "semi-retired" attorney for the widows who currently reside in Florida, said Friday that the court's decision will affect roughly 100 widows who collect benefits under Pension Code Section 6-140. Section 6-140 provides that the widow of a fireman whose death results from the performance...