Court Opinion

ID: 9722865
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:53:24.527267+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:41.072002
License: Public Domain

FLEMING, J.
I concur.
A contract member of the state Public Employees’ Retirement System has a right under state law to exhaust accumulated sick leave prior to retirement for disability. But entitlement to sick leave is a matter of local rule set by the local public agency, whose governing body establishes and defines the amount, accrual, and duration of sick leave. In delineating the scope of sick leave the public agency may be as generous or as niggardly as it chooses; and, conceivably, it could deny its employees sick leave altogether. However, once a public agency participant in the state retirement system has adopted and formulated a system of sick leave, *354state law entitles an employee who qualifies for sick leave under the local rule to exhaust accumulated sick leave prior to retirement for disability. (Gov. Code, §§ 20493, 21025.2; Marsille v. City of Santa Ana (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 764 [134 Cal.Rptr. 743].)
Patton v. Governing Board (1978) 77 Cal.App.3d 495 [143 Cal.Rptr. 593], does not hold to the contrary. In Patton the local rule required that an employee be sick and unable to work in order to qualify for sick leave. The local rule thus distinguished between sickness and disability, and since Patton was capable of working full-time for the school district in another job, he did not qualify for sick leave. Where the local rule defines sickness as inability to work, state law as set out in section 21025.2 does not require a grant of sick leave to employees capable of full-time work at the time of disability retirement. (Patton, pp. 502, 503, 504.) Under such a local rule a disabled police officer capable of full-time clerical work, a disabled fireman capable of full-time maintenance work, and, as in Patton, a disabled bus driver capable of full-time work as a mechanic are not entitled to sick leave. In so limiting sick leave the local rule does not conflict with state law.
At bench, however, the local rule of the City of Monrovia identified sickness as more or less coterminous with disability. Since respondent qualified for sick leave under the local rule, under state law he could insist on receiving sick leave prior to disability retirement. (Gov. Code, § 21025.2.)
A petition for a rehearing was denied September 19, 1978.