Summary
The Supreme Court of North Carolina held that the plaintiff's Consolidated Judicial Retirement System retirement allowance was properly suspended while he served as Chair of the North Carolina Utilities Commission and contributed to the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System. The court interpreted the interaction between Articles 1 and 4 of Chapter 135 of the North Carolina General Statutes and concluded that the applicable return-to-service provision barred simultaneous receipt of the judicial retirement allowance and state employee retirement-system contributions. A dissent argued that the statutes addressed separate retirement systems and did not clearly prohibit receipt of previously earned judicial benefits during service under the state employee system.
Holdings
- A recipient of a CJRS retirement allowance who returns to state service as an employee and contributes to TSERS may not simultaneously receive the CJRS allowance; the allowance must be suspended during that service.
Questions Presented
- Whether a retired member receiving a Consolidated Judicial Retirement System allowance who returns to state employment as Chair of the North Carolina Utilities Commission and contributes to the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System may simultaneously receive the CJRS allowance.
- Whether N.C.G.S. § 135-3(8)(c), made applicable to the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System through N.C.G.S. § 135-52, requires suspension of the CJRS allowance during the recipient's service as a contributing member of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System.
Disposition
affirmed
Cases Cited (18)
- Wells v. Consolidated Jud'l Ret. Sys. of N.C., 136 N.C. App. 671, 526 S.E.2d 486 (2000)(followed)
- Childers v. Parker's, Inc., 274 N.C. 256, 162 S.E.2d 481 (1968)(followed)
- Thornburg v. Consolidated Jud'l Ret. Sys. of N.C., 137 N.C. App. 150, 527 S.E.2d 351 (2000)(followed)
- Polaroid Corp. v. Offerman, 349 N.C. 290, 507 S.E.2d 284 (1998)(followed)
- State ex rel. Utilities Commission v. Public Staff, 309 N.C. 195, 306 S.E.2d 435 (1983)(followed)
- State v. Emery, 224 N.C. 581, 31 S.E.2d 858 (1944)(followed)
- Frye Regional Medical Center, Inc. v. Hunt, 350 N.C. 39, 510 S.E.2d 159 (1999)(followed)
- Thomas Jefferson University v. Shalala, 512 U.S. 504, 129 L. Ed. 2d 405 (1994)(followed)
- In re Appeal of Philip Morris U.S.A., 335 N.C. 227, 436 S.E.2d 828 (1993)(followed)
- State v. Ballance, 229 N.C. 764, 51 S.E.2d 731 (1949)(followed)
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