The change would have increased Judkins’ pension payments by more than $400,000 over 20 years, according to Dalal’s report. Marshall has countered that he was acting on bad advice from city staff and that the sick leave was rescinded once it was found to be improper.

The lawsuit also claims that if Dalal had been more thorough in his investigation, he would have found it was “impossible” for Judkins to receive the extra money.

Judkins has never told her side of how her employment ended, and city officials have repeatedly refused to say whether she left voluntarily or not.

The lawsuit says that Marshall told Judkins on April 22 that “her employment was no longer desired” by the city.

That same day, according to the suit, Marshall told Judkins that the mayor had given him two résumés of candidates for high-level administrative positions, one of them hers.

Marshall has long said that he was trying to negotiate an “amicable” departure for Judkins.