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NEWS RELEASE # 86 SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA Opinions handed down on the 4th day of December, 2002

BY KIMBALL, J.:

2001-C- 3224

MICHAEL LAFLEUR, MANUEL CURRY AND RAYMOND KELLY, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF THE CLASS OF ALL POLICE OFFICERS IDENTIFIED HEREIN v. THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (Parish of Orleans) For the reasons expressed above, we find the lower courts erred in concluding that the city civil service rules at issue deprive plaintiffs of a vested property right. Consequently, the judgment of the court of appeal, which affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of plaintiffs, is reversed. REVERSED.

12/4/02 SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 01-C-3224 MICHAEL LAFLEUR, MANUEL CURRY AND RAYMOND KELLY, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF THE CLASS OF ALL POLICE OFFICERS IDENTIFIED HEREIN VERSUS THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF ORLEANS Kimball, Justice We granted certiorari to determine whether the customary practice within the New Orleans Police Department ("NOPD") of allowing officers to "run out" their accrued sick leave prior to retirement constituted an enforceable contract such that plaintiffs who were not allowed to run out their sick leave would be entitled to compensation for their accrued sick leave. Since the custom of "running out" sick leave violated city civil service rules, we find that a legally enforceable contract was not formed. Accordingly, the court of appeal's judgment to the contrary is reversed. Facts and Procedural History This case involves the legal question of the manner in which a member of the NOPD is to be compensated upon separation of service from the NOPD for sick leave earned between July 10, 1970 and July 10, 1980. On May 21, 1980, plaintiffs, a class of past and present police officers of the NOPD, commenced this suit against the City of New Orleans ("City") alleging divestiture of vested property rights in the form of accumulated sick leave benefits. As the case evolved, plaintiffs' contentions focused on an unwritten, largely unofficial, practice in which a police officer who was ready to retire took the balance of his sick leave without reporting to work and received his regular paycheck until his accumulated sick leave was exhausted. In effect, these
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