Retired judges argue for back pay to state Supreme Court

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state underpaid Missouri judges for two years based on a policy change that tied their salaries to their federal counterparts' pay, attorneys for some judges argued Monday to the state Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the judges argued they should receive back pay and an increase in retirement benefits as a result.

"Nothing less, nothing more" than what judges are entitled to according to the 2010 policy change, the judges' attorney, Matt Dameron, said.

Two retired judges proposed to make the case a class-action lawsuit.

Lawsuits over federal judges' pay spurred the suit. Federal judges claimed Congress in some years withheld automatic cost-of-living adjustments they're entitled to under a 1989 federal law. Those judges won in court and later received financial compensation.

Because a state panel in 2010 tied Missouri judges' salaries to their federal counterparts, state judges are arguing they similarly were underpaid and should get back wages.

Supreme Court judges make 69 percent of what U.S. Supreme Court judges make and court of appeals, circuit and associate circuit judges make 73 percent of corresponding federal judges' pay.

Assistant attorney general Robert Presson and a lawyer for the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System said judges received proper pay according to what their federal counterparts actually were making at the time.

Presson told Supreme Court judges the state had no way of knowing about the later federal lawsuits when it needed to pay judges between 2012 and 2014 and shouldn't be liable for retroactive pay changes.

"That's all any state official can do is base their decision based on the information at the time," Presson said.

Some Supreme Court judges questioned similar assertions by Presson during Monday's arguments.

If an agency "miscalculated for reasons beyond your control, that doesn't mean you didn't miscalculate," Judge Laura Denvir Stith said.

Allen Allred, a lawyer for the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System, said interpreting the 2010 change to require judges receive back pay would make the policy unconstitutional.

Missouri Supreme Court judges did not indicate when they might rule.