Court Opinion

ID: 9575174
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:12:16.527834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:04.868264
License: Public Domain

Pope, Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the opinion of the trial court in this case and the earlier opinion of the Attorney General that the calculation of disability benefits does not call for a projection in age pursuant to OCGA § 47-2-123 (c) or (d). See Op. Att’y Gen. No. 87-9 (February 25, 1987). In my opinion, the calculation of benefits due under the disability section (OCGA § 47-2-123) by necessity requires reference to subsections (c) and (d) of the service retirement section (OCGA § 47-2-210).
The parties stipulated that the plaintiff, Ernest S. Sledge, is entitled to disability benefits, that he was age thirty-nine at the time his disability arose and had accrued sixteen years of service as a member of the retirement system. Since he was under sixty years of age at the *599time his disability arose and had accrued more than fifteen but less than twenty years of service, he is entitled to receive benefits consisting of “75 percent of the service retirement allowance which would have been payable upon service retirement at age 60 had the member continued in service to age 60 without further change in compensation. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 47-2-123 (c) (1). The controversy centers on how the “service retirement allowance . . . payable upon service retirement at age 60” should be calculated.
To calculate the “service retirement allowance . . . payable . . . at age 60” one must necessarily refer to the Code section which addresses service retirement allowances, OCGA § 47-2-120. That section sets forth no single formula for retirement of an employee at age sixty. Instead, the section provides for different benefits depending upon the number of years of service a member has accrued. If an employee retires at age sixty with less than thirty years of service, the Employees’ Retirement System may reduce the benefits due him in accordance with actuarial tables. OCGA § 47-2-120 (a) (1). In this case, defendant Employees’ Retirement System calculated the benefits due plaintiff pursuant to subsection (a) and applied an age reduction factor of five percent for each of the five years between age sixty (the hypothetical retirement age allowed by the disability statute) and the full retirement age of sixty-five. However, if, as set forth in the disability section, “the member [in this case had] continued in service to age 60” he would have accrued thirty-seven years of service. Thus, upon retirement at age sixty he would have been entitled to full retirement benefits as if he were age sixty-five pursuant to OCGA § 47-2-120 (d). Since he would have been entitled to full retirement benefits at age sixty without the age reduction factor otherwise imposed on retirees at age sixty, then, pursuant to the disability statute he is entitled to severity-five percent of those same benefits, again, without imposition of the age reduction factor.
It is true, as the lower court noted, that the disability Code section graduates the level of benefits due a disabled employee depending upon the number of years of service established at the time the disability arose. See OCGA § 47-2-123 (c) (l)-(4). However, I do not agree with the opinion of the trial court, adopted by a majority of this court, that reference to the service retirement Code section in calculating benefits due under the disability retirement section is redundant or results in a double graduation of benefits due. Instead, as I construe the plain and unambiguous language of the disability section reference must be made to the service retirement section in order to calculate the disability retirement benefits due. If the member would not be subject to the age reduction factor for retirement under the service retirement section, then he should not be subject to reduction under the disability retirement section which defines the disability *600benefits due a member in reference to the service retirement benefits which would have been payable to him if he had worked on to the age of sixty. I do not interpret the projection forward to age 65, depending on years of service, contained within OCGA § 47-2-120 (c) and (d) to be in conflict with or inconsistent with the graduation of benefits due, depending on years of service, contained within OCGA § 47-2-123 (c) (l)-(4). Thus, the two statutes do not need to be “reconciled” but merely construed literally in favor of the rights of the pensioner. See Board of Trustees &c. v. Christy, 246 Ga. 553 (1) (272 SE2d 288) (1980).
Decided July 13, 1990
Rehearing denied July 30, 1990 — Cert, applied for.
Chilivis & Grindler, John K. Larkins, Jr., Lillian C. Giornelli, for appellant.
Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, H. Perry Michael, Executive Assistant Attorney General, Harrison W. Kohler, Deputy Attorney General, Wayne P. Yancey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Susan Rutherford, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
The language of subsection (c) (1) clearly makes a disability retiree eligible for a percentage of those benefits he would have been due “had [he] continued in service to age 60” (emphasis supplied) at the same rate of compensation. The majority opinion seemingly ignores the clear and unambiguous phrase “continued in service to age 60” and instead effectively interprets the statute to grant the retiree those benefits he would be due if he had already reached age 60 at the time the application for disability retirement benefits was filed. If such is the intent of the legislature then it is properly the role of the legislature to amend the statute.
I am authorized to state that Judge Beasley and Judge Cooper join in this dissent.