Astorga v. Retirement Board: Court Rules on Effective Date of Public Employee's Disability Retirement

Just a quick word on Astorga v. Retirement Board of the Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System (Cal.App. 2/2/16), which concerns the effective date of a public employee's disability retirement.

Sara Astorga applied for retirement disability. To maintain health insurance pending the decision on her application, she elected to remain on the payroll and receive her accrued sick leave, vacation and holiday pay in small but regular increments.

The Retirement Board of the Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System (Board) approved Astorga's disability retirement application. Government Code section 317241 states that a disability retirement may not commence until the day following the last day the applicant received "regular compensation." The Board determined the effective date of her retirement was the day after she received her last sick leave, vacation or holiday payment. It rejected her argument that the effective date should be calculated based on the day her sick leave, vacation and holiday pay balances would have been exhausted had she taken them in full rather than in smaller increments.

Astorga petitioned for a writ of mandate. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5.) The trial court denied the petition, concluding that the Board correctly calculated Astorga's effective date of disability retirement. We affirm.

The opinion is available here.