Opinion ID: 2025209
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: The genesis of the instant dispute was a contested case initiated by Bessie Traylor. Having worked as a school teacher for nearly thirty years, she planned to teach one more year before retiring. Unfortunately, at the outset of this last year of work she was injured on the job and was not able to teach for the remainder of the year. While off work she received worker's compensation benefits. On the date of her injury she had accrued approximately 29.8 years of service credit. Under the interpretation of the act employed by the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System at the time, Ms. Traylor was not given service credit for the time spent off work while receiving worker's compensation payments. As a result, at the end of the year she failed to accrue at least thirty years of service credit, and, not meeting that threshold, her retirement benefit was approximately $250 per month less than it would have been had she been given service credit for that period. Ms. Traylor contested the retirement system's refusal to award her service credit for the time she was off work and received worker's compensation benefits. The board, giving the retirement act a reading that was unprecedented in that agency's construction of the statute, determined that Ms. Traylor should be given service credit for the time she received worker's compensation. The board's reasoning was that this benefit was in some sense similar to sick pay, and because sick pay falls under the statutory definition of compensation, so should worker's compensation. This approach ensured that Ms. Traylor would receive the full pension she would have obtained had she not been injured. Not surprisingly, this ruling caused those charged with implementing teacher retirements to inquire of the board how this ruling would affect others similarly situated. The board at that point chose a course consistent with the Traylor holding and indicated that it planned to implement this new treatment of worker's compensation benefits system wide for those who were paid worker's compensation benefits, commencing March 13, 1992, as well as for active public school employees who applied for service credit for periods before that date. This litigation ensued, and this Court has now affirmed the validity of the board's ruling. This means that teachers who received worker's compensation benefits from March 13, 1992, through June 12, 1996, will automatically receive retirement credit for that period.