Opinion ID: 1223410
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Contract Between The Retirees And The State

Text: The statutes enacted by the General Assembly are contracts between the State and the retirees. As stated in Withers v. Register, 246 Ga. 158, 159 (269 SE2d 431) (1980): Long before the rule was recognized generally by the courts of the several states, it was the law of this state that a statute or ordinance establishing a retirement plan for government employees becomes a part of an employee's contract of employment if the employee contributes at any time any amount toward the benefits he is to receive, and if the employee performs services while the law is in effect; and that the impairment clause of our constitution (Art. I, Sec. I, Par. VII, Constitution of Georgia of 1976; Code Ann. § 2-107) [6] precludes the application of an amendatory statute or ordinance in the calculation of the employee's retirement benefits if the effect of the amendment is to reduce rather than increase the benefits payable.... [I]f the employee performs services during the effective dates of the legislation, the benefits are constitutionally vested, precluding their legislative repeal as to the employee .... (Emphases supplied.) As the majority opinion recognized, the law became part of the contract of employment of the retiree. (Majority op. at 613.) Those contracts cannot be impaired without violating the constitutions. The majority opinion creates a conflict between Art. III, Sec. X, Par. I, and Art. VII, Sec. I, Par. I of the Constitution. The opinion also limits the constitutionally granted power that rested in the General Assembly to use any method it chose in fulfilling its constitutional obligation to the retirees. It ignores the retirees' reliance upon the public policy of this state that has until today given them constitutional protection, Art. III, Sec. X, Par. I, and it ignores the retirees' reliance on their contracts with the State. See Withers, supra. The reliance interest of Judge Quillian was upheld by this Court, Quillian, supra; however, the reliance interest of these retirees is ignored.