Judge rules Missouri owes $26.3 million to blind residents

Missouri owes more than $26.312 million to blind people who were underpaid by the state's Blind Pension Fund, Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce said in an order signed Friday.

Joyce ruled Sept. 27 - 10 days after the most recent hearing in a case that began in February 2006 - the state appellate court had now resolved all issues in the case and issued specific instructions on calculating the final judgment.

The case has been to the state appeals court four times, and now Attorney General Josh Hawley's office has until Nov. 6 to decide if Joyce's latest ruling also should be appealed.

The legal battle involves payments from a fund established in the 1920s to provide an annual pension for Missouri residents who are blind, have lived in the state at least a year and meet specific eligibility requirements.

It currently pays roughly $728 a month to about 3,000 Missourians.

The original 2006 lawsuit was filed by some pensioners arguing they had been underpaid since 1992.

Defendants were the state's Family Services Division and the Social Services Department's director.

The appeals court in Kansas City agreed in 2009, sending the case back to the Cole County court for a determination of the damages.

On a second appeal in 2010, the Kansas City court agreed with the state a statute of limitations required the damages payments to be calculated only for the five years before the lawsuit was filed.

In 2015, the appeals court ordered a determination the amount of annual payments from 1994-2005 before the payment formula was changed, as well as the proper amount of payments since 2005 under the new formula.

Joyce's latest ruling said the underpayments and interest totaled $19,672,492, as of June 30, 2012 - the last day of the 2011-12 state business year.

The ongoing legal battle raised that to $26,312,279 as of last month - a nearly $6.4 million increase.

Joyce's order last week also said attorneys for the blind pensioners are entitled to 25 percent of the total damages, or $6,578,070 as of Sept. 27.

Those amounts, including attorney fees, will grow at 9 percent interest from Sept. 27 until paid.

"The state will be paying over $2 million a year in interest until they pay people, so it's in their interest to get the judgment satisfied," said John Ammann of St. Louis University Legal Clinics, one of the attorneys who helped litigate the case.

Chris Gray, executive director of the Missouri Council of the Blind, said the state is "putting off the inevitable" by delaying payments. "We just need to get on with this and get closure," he said.

Amman said some of those affected will have the payout added to their monthly checks, while others will receive a lump sum ranging from a few dollars to an estimated $3,000.

The Associated Press contributed information used in this story.