The late Judge John Kelley Quillian applied to the Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia for retirement benefits pursuant to provisions of OCGA § 47-2-91. Four taxpayers challenged the actions of the system’s governing board in awarding such benefits. The trial court dismissed the complaint for want of standing.
1. The complainants base their standing on the provisions of OCGA § 9-6-24, as follows: “Where the question is one of public right and the object is to procure the enforcement of a public duty, no legal or special interest need be shown, but it shall be sufficient that a plaintiff is interested in having the laws executed and the duty in question enforced.”
The board, in response, contends that it has no public duties, and that there is no public right in the operation оf the retirement system. Precedent, however, indicates the contrary.
(a) “Property held by a public corporation for the benefit of the state and not for private or corporate profit and income is public property. . . . Property held by the retirement systems is not held for the benefit of private citizens; it is held for the benefit of public emplоyees for whom the General Assembly has created retirement systems. Although the properties in question produce income,. . . they are nonetheless public property.”
Teachers’ Retirement System v. City of Atlanta,
(b) “The public may not be estopped by the acts of any officer done in the exercise of an unconferred power.”
Tate v. Teachers’ Retirement System,
The Employees’ Retirement System is a public body; its assets аre public property; and its officers are public officials who discharge public duties.
2. The board insists that only beneficiaries of the retirement system may complain of the acts of its officials. However, status as a beneficiary of the retirement system is not the sole basis for standing to question the operation of the system.
(a) “Public officers are the trustеes and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to them.” Constitution of the State of Georgia of 1983, Art. I, Sec. II, Par. I.
(b) “ ‘This court has many times recognized the right of a taxpayer to apply to a court of equity to prevent public officers from
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taking action or performing acts which they have no authority to do. [Cits.]’ It was held by this court as еarly as 1871 that a court of equity is authorized to interfere to restrain the action of a municipal official if it appears that the act is ultra vires or fraudulent and corrupt. Wеlls
v. Atlanta,
(c) More recently, the requisites for standing have been enunciated in
Newsome v. City of Union Point,
It will be seen that the actions of the board are not beyond a citizen’s assertion of ultra vires, whether or not the complainant is a beneficiary of the retirement system.
Public responsibility demands public scrutiny.
3. The complainants’ standing here is dependent upon the correctness of their contention that the questioned actions are ultra vires.
Their complaint raises three quarrels: credit accorded for part-time employment; retroactive application of the retirement statute; and inclusion of unused annual leave and sick leave. 1
(a) The first of these contentions alleges no conduct that is ultrа vires. “When a municipal corporation is, by its proper officers, acting within the scope of its powers, a Court of equity will not, at the instance of the tax-payers of the corporation, interfere to restrain or control its action, on the ground that the same is unwise or extravagant.”
Wells v. Atlanta,
supra,
The duties of the retirement system include the assessment and *581 calсulation of entitlements. Even if the computation here were in error, nevertheless it was not ultra vires.
(b) Similarly, the board may establish credit for unused leave that was accumulated during рeriods of time antedating the enactment of the statute. “A statute does not operate retroactively because it relates to antecedent facts.”
Todd v. Morgan,
The argument as to retroactivity must fail.
4. The third and mаjor argument of the complainants is that any statutory authority to allocate retirement credit for unused annual leave or sick leave to the benefit of elected оfficials is unconstitutional, and itself ultra vires. See n. 1, supra.
(a) OCGA § 47-2-91 (b) provides retirement credit for unused annual leave and sick leave for all members of the retirement system, including eleсted state officials. Similarly, OCGA § 47-2-91 (c) directs that “unclassified members” 2 are entitled to the same leave benefits as classified employees. OCGA § 47-2-91 (e) recognizes that unused annual leаve and sick leave may serve as retirement credit for the benefit of elected officials. 3
(b) The Constitution of our state does not prohibit the award to elected judiciаl officers of creditable service for retirement purposes based upon accrued but unused annual leave and sick leave. Rather, it states this: “All judges shall receive сompensation and allowances as provided by law.” Constitution of the State of Georgia of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. VII, Par. V. See also Art. Ill, Sec. X, Par. I: “Public funds may be expended for the purpоse of paying benefits and other costs of retirement and pension systems for public officers and employees and their beneficiaries.”
(c) OCGA § 47-2-91 conflicts with no provision of our state’s Constitution. While the Constitution contains no specific establishment of annual leave or sick leave for elected officials, it is within the powers of the General Assembly to establish such as an emolument of employment, and to provide that unused leave may be credited as service for retirement purposes. “The General Assembly shall have thе power to make all laws not inconsistent with this Constitution, and not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, which it shall deem necessary and proper for the welfare of the state.” Constitution of the State of Georgia of 1983, Art. Ill, Sec. VI, Par. I.
(d) “[A] statute or ordinance establishing a rеtirement plan for government employees becomes a part of an employee’s contract of employment if the employee contributes at any time аny amount toward the benefits he is to receive, and if the employee performs services while the law is in effect. . . .”
Withers v. Register,
The statute in question is not unconstitutional. As to the emolument of rеtirement credit for unused leave, elected judicial officials are entitled to no more — and no less — than all classified employees of the state.
5. This case now may bе concluded, upon the following considerations:
(a) Judicial review of the conduct of officials of the retirement system is not limited solely to actions initiated by beneficiaries of the system. Division 1, supra.
(b) The complainants have standing only if their allegations of fact are sufficient, in law, to describe acts of the respondents that are ultra vires. Division 2, suprа.
(c) The acts claimed to be ultra vires are within the lawful scope of respondents’ power. Divisions 3 and 4, supra.
(d) The complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. OCGA § 9-11-12 (b) (6).
The trial court did not err in dismissing the complaint.
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
The complaint contains four counts, summarized as follows: 1) OCGA § 47-2-91 (b) is unconstitutional insofar as it purports to grant retirement credit for forfeited sick and annual leave to elected officials. The attempt to do so violates Art. Ill, Sec. VI, Par. VI of the Constitution of Georgia of 1983, which prohibits the General Assembly from granting any donation or gratuity, or from granting or authorizing additional compensation to any public officer after his service has been rendered. 2) Insofar as OCGA § 47-2-91 (b) purports to authorize such retirement credit prior to the effective date of the statute, it violates Art. I, Sec. I, Par. X, which provides that no retroactive law shall be passed; and Art. Ill, Sec. VI, Par. XI, which prohibits the General Assembly from granting or аuthorizing extra compensation to any public officer after his term of office has expired. 3) The regulations likewise are unconstitutional. 4) The board’s calculation resulted in credit for part-time employment, which does not constitute creditable service.
Elected state officials, as was Judge Quillian, come within this category. OCGA § 47-2-91 (a) (5).
See also OCGA § 47-2-91 (d), whiсh provides: “For the purposes of this Code section, compensatory time shall not be applicable to elected state officials and no elected state official may offset any annual or sick leave taken by any such official by any compensatory time which might otherwise be applicable to such official.”