Case Name: In the Matter of Thelma Tomasino, Appellant, v. New York State Employees' Retirement System, Respondent
Court: New York Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1982-09-14
Citations: 57 N.Y.2d 753
Docket Number: 
Parties: In the Matter of Thelma Tomasino, Appellant, v New York State Employees’ Retirement System, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Reports
Volume: 57
Pages: 753–755

Head Matter:
In the Matter of Thelma Tomasino, Appellant, v New York State Employees’ Retirement System, Respondent.
Decided September 14, 1982
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Ralph A. Siciliano for appellant.
Robert Abrams, Attorney-General (William J. Kogan of counsel), for respondent.

Opinion:
OPINION OF THE COURT
On review of submissions pursuant to rule 500.2 (b) of the Rules of the Court of Appeals (22 NYCRR 500.2 [g]), judgment affirmed, with costs. The determination of the State Comptroller denying petitioner's application for an annulment of decedent's statutorily prescribed retirement option and for a designation óf herself as beneficiary under another option was not arbitrary or capricious. Ortelere v Teachers' Retirement Bd. of City of N. Y. (25 NY2d 196) does not require a different result. In Ortelere, we held that a mentally incompetent's affirmative choice of a retirement option could be set aside under the circumstances of that case. Decedent in the present case, however, made no affirmative choice of a retirement option. This lack of choice may not now be set aside (see McCarthy v Levitt, 59 AD2d 952, mot for lv to app den 43 NY2d 647).
Concur: Chief Judge Cooke and Judges Jasen, Jones, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Meyer. Taking no part: Judge Gabrielli.