CopyCited 23 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Nov 26, 1984 | 253 Ga. 554
...First, the court held that the definition of "involuntary separation" found in the ERS Act, OCGA §
47-2-1 (20), does not apply to a governor who is constitutionally prohibited from serving beyond a second consecutive term. Second, the court stated that OCGA §
47-2-294 prohibits any person who transfers into ERS from LRS from applying transferred creditable service toward involuntary separation retirement benefits....
...On May 17, 1984 the Board of Trustees of ERS authorized the withdrawal of Busbee's application for involuntary separation retirement *557 benefits. The remaining parties then filed briefs and orally argued the case before this court, concentrating their efforts on the trial court's construction of OCGA §
47-2-294 as prohibiting the transfers of involuntary separation credits from LRS into ERS....
...Busbee had not accrued sufficient creditable service to the state to qualify for involuntary separation retirement benefits immediately became moot. The only remaining issue, all parties agree, is whether the trial judge correctly construed OCGA §
47-2-294 as prohibiting any legislator who transferred into ERS from LRS from claiming involuntary separation retirement benefits....
...tees of ERS. It is therefore clear that as to this litigation neither Busbee nor the ERS has pending claims adverse to the plaintiffs. To decide these appeals in their present posture would be to resolve a question as to the abstract meaning of OCGA §
47-2-294, and to hazard an opinion as to the legality of ERS' payment of involuntary separation benefits to unknown, unnamed *558 legislators who retired under entirely different circumstances, or who may not yet have retired at all....
