Pennsylvania’s retired judges and justices earn nearly $43 million in annual pension payouts from the State Employees’ Retirement System, including 98 former jurists who receive six-figure annuities, according to SERS records. Several of the judges receiving significant annual payouts are among those who regularly hear cases as senior judges at a rate of $545 per day.
The largest pension among the Pennsylvania judiciary belongs to Edward R. Summers, who retired from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 2014 and earns a $189,844 annuity from SERS. Summers is joined in the upper tier of pension payouts by Commonwealth Court Senior Judges James Gardner Colins, Dan Pellegrini, Rochelle S. Friedman and J. Wesley Oler Jr.; and Superior Court Senior Judges John L. Musmanno, Patricia H. Jenkins and Eugene B. Strassburger III, all of whom receive more than $100,000 in annual pension benefits.
