Gutierrez v. Board of Retirement

Opinion

VOGEL (MIRIAM A.) J.

A county employee applied for and was granted non-service-connected disability retirement benefits, which he received until his death about two years later. Thereafter, the employee’s widow continued to receive monthly benefits (about 60 percent of the amount her husband had received). Two years after the employee’s death, the widow claimed that her husband’s illness and death had been service-connected, and she attempted to “convert” her survivor’s benefits so that her monthly payments would be increased. When the county refused, the widow

[747]

filed a petition for a writ of mandate, which the trial court granted. We reverse.

Facts

In 1981, Sal Gutierrez was hired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as a Deputy Marshal. In January 1991, Gutierrez submitted an “Application for Disability Retirement” to the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) in which he requested a “Non-service-connected disability retirement.” On the application form, Gutierrez stated that he had been suffering from “progressive systemic sclerosis with severe damage to the lungs” since April 1981, and that the cause of his “scleroderma” was “unknown.” In July 1991, LACERA granted “a nonservice-connected disability retirement” to Gutierrez, and monthly benefits were thereafter paid to him. In January 1993, Gutierrez died, and his widow (Norma Gutierrez) began receiving monthly survivor’s benefits equal to 60 percent of the allowance that Gutierrez had been receiving.

At some point after Gutierrez’s death, Mrs. Gutierrez applied for death benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act, alleging that Gutierrez’s condition and his death were related to or aggravated by his employment as a deputy marshal. In November 1994, her application was granted. In April 1995, Mrs. Gutierrez wrote to LACERA, requesting that it accept an application for

service-connected

disability survivor benefits (so that her monthly benefits would be increased). On October 26, LACERA denied Mrs. Gutierrez’s request, explaining that “[s]urvivor benefits are based on the status of the member at the time of death” and that, since Gutierrez had never applied for service-connected disability benefits, LACERA was unable to grant Mrs. Gutierrez’s claim for service-connected survivor benefits.