Decision  Pryor v. State Bd. of Ret, CR-25-0014

Date:	03/28/2025
Organization:	Division of Administrative Law Appeals
Docket Number:	CR-25-0014

• Petitioner: Donna Pryor
• Respondent: State Board of Retirement
• Administrative Magistrate: James P. Rooney

Order of Dismissal

Donna Pryor seeks to buy back her work with the Department of Transportation from January 25, 1987 to July 5, 1987.  The State Board of Retirement sent her a letter on December 11, 2024 granting her request and calculated the amount of creditable service she earned from January 25, 1987 to July 5, 1987 as 2 months and 20 days.[1]  Ms. Pryor appealed, asserting that she had not been told how the State Board came up with its calculation of her creditable service.

     The letter the State Board sent Ms. Pryor did not list that she had a right to appeal to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals.  The Division can hear only “appealable decisions.”  See Barnstable County Ret Bd. v. PERAC, CR-07-0163 at *12 (Contributory Ret. Appeal Bd., February 17, 2012)  An appealable decision is one that “(1) expressly informs the parties that it is an appealable decision and (2) gives notice of the parties' right to appeal, including the time for appeal and to whom the appeal must be sent, pursuant to G.L. c. 32, s. 16(4).”  Id. at 1.  Because the State Board’s December 11, 2024 was not an appealable decision, I dismiss Ms. Pryor’s appeal as premature.

     If communication between the State Board and Ms. Pryor fails to clear up how the Board calculated Ms. Pryor’s creditable service, I order the Board to issue an appealable decision regarding that calculation.

Divison of Administrative Law Appeals

James P. Rooney

James P. Rooney
First Administrative Magistrate

Notice sent to: 
Donna Pryor
Alison Eggers, Esq.

[1] It is my understanding that the Board treated her service during this period as part-time.