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2018 Georgia Code 47-2-298 | Car Wreck Lawyer

Link to State of Georgia Official Statute 2018 Georgia Code Annotated (sourced from legal.resource.org)
O.C.G.A. 47-2-298 Case Law from Google Scholar Amendments to OCGA 47-2-298

TITLE 47 RETIREMENT AND PENSIONS

Section 2. Employees' Retirement System of Georgia, 47-2-1 through 47-2-360.

ARTICLE 8 PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO PARTICULAR GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES

47-2-298. Employees of county departments of family and children services.

  1. As used in this Code section, the term "local retirement system" means a retirement or pension system maintained by a county which includes as members thereof employees of the county department of family and children services and the term includes any such retirement or pension system created by law or created by ordinance or resolution of the county under the home rule provisions of the Constitution of Georgia.
  2. Any employee or former employee of a county department of family and children services who is or was a member of a local retirement system and who is or becomes a member of this retirement system, subject to the requirements of this Code section, shall obtain creditable service under this retirement system as provided in this subsection.Upon notification in writing by the board of trustees of this retirement system to the board of trustees or other managing body of the local retirement system, the board of trustees or other managing body of the local retirement system shall transfer to this retirement system an amount equal to the employer contributions, plus regular interest thereon, which had been paid to the local retirement system on behalf of each employee and any employee contributions which have been paid to the local retirement system by or on behalf of each employee and have not been withdrawn from the local retirement system, plus regular interest thereon.The board of trustees of this retirement system shall determine the period of time that such amount will fund as creditable service under this retirement system without creating any additional accrued liability of the retirement system.The amount of creditable service so determined shall be the creditable service to which the member is entitled.
  3. Employees or former employees of a county department of family and children services were in service on July 1, 1996, and who are subject to the provisions of this Code section and who failed to exercise the option provided by this Code section by notification in writing to the board of trustees of this retirement system, the board of trustees or other managing body of the local retirement system, and to the county governing authority in a timely manner shall be forever barred from exercising such option. For employees or former employees of a county department of family and children services who become members of this retirement system after July 1, 1996, such election and notification must be made within six months of becoming a member of this retirement system. Any such employee failing to exercise the option granted by this Code section within such time limitation shall not at any time thereafter be eligible to become a member of this retirement system as an employee of a county department of family and children services. Any such employee shall make payment to the board of trustees of this retirement system of a sum equal to his or her employee contributions which had been paid to the local retirement system during the years of service for which credit is being claimed and thereafter shall not be entitled to receive any benefit from the local retirement system.
  4. Employees or former employees of a county department of family and children services who are or become members of this retirement system and who obtain credit for service pursuant to the provisions of this Code section shall be subject to the provisions of Code Section 47-2-334, except to the extent that said Code section prohibits obtaining prior service as creditable service as authorized by subsection (b) of this Code section.
  5. To the extent this Code section conflicts with or is inconsistent with the provisions of a local retirement or pension system affected by this Code section, whether such local retirement or pension system was created by law or by local ordinance, the provisions of this Code section shall control.

(Code 1981, §47-2-298, enacted by Ga. L. 1990, p. 993, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 130, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 738, § 1; Ga. L. 1996, p. 305, § 1; Ga. L. 2010, p. 1207, § 33/SB 436.)

The 2010 amendment, effective July 1, 2010, in subsection (c), in the first sentence, substituted "and who failed to" for "shall" in the middle and added "in a timely manner shall be forever barred from exercising such option" at the end, deleted the former second sentence, which read: "Such notification must be made by not later than December 31, 1996.", and substituted "his or her" for "their" in the middle of the last sentence.

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2010, p. 1207, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "The intent of this Act is to repeal obsolete and inoperative provisions and to make certain stylistic corrections in Title 47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. Nothing in this Act shall deny, abridge, increase, renew, revive, or on any way affect any right, benefit, option, credit, or election to which any person was entitled pursuant to such title on June 30, 2010, and the board of trustees of each public retirement system is authorized and directed to provide by regulation for the continuation of any such right, benefit, option, credit, or election not otherwise covered in this Act; provided, however, that any such right, benefit, option, credit, or election shall be subject to the statutory provisions in effect on June 30, 2010."

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Equal protection.

- Equal protection rights of former employees of county department of family and children services were violated by a provision that significantly reduced retirement benefits to employees who transferred to state employment after July 1, 1982, as compared to former employees who transferred before that date. Employees' Retirement Sys. of Ga. v. Martin, 272 Ga. 535, 533 S.E.2d 68 (2000).

Cases Citing O.C.G.A. § 47-2-298

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Employees' Ret. Sys. v. Martin, 533 S.E.2d 68 (Ga. 2000).

Cited 3 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Jul 5, 2000 | 272 Ga. 535, 24 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2817, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 2484

...In 1982, however, the General Assembly enacted OCGA § 47-2-334, which precluded the former employees, as new members of the ERS, from purchasing prior service credit. [1] In an apparent attempt to remedy this situation, the General Assembly in 1990 enacted OCGA § 47-2-298, which gave the former employees who became ERS members the option of purchasing creditable service under the ERS for their DFCS service....
...[3] Subsection (c) of the statute also provided that "[u]pon receiving the payments provided for by subsection (b) of this Code section, the board of trustees [of the ERS] shall enter the creditable service provided for by said subsection (b) upon the records of the employees." After § 47-2-298 was enacted, the ERS notified the former employees of their right to purchase service under § 47-2-298, and each of them in turn notified the ERS that they elected to purchase service credit under that Code section, and remitted his or her required contribution. The ERS subsequently notified the plaintiffs that it had received their payments under § 47-2-298. The ERS also notified the plaintiffs of the amount of creditable service they had obtained as a result of the payment. Fulton County, however, subsequently contended that § 47-2-298 was unconstitutional and declined to make the contributions required of it....
...ounty to compel the required payments. The ERS then sent the plaintiffs a letter notifying them that Fulton County had not *70 sent the required payments; that the dispute was in litigation; and that the option provided to the former employees under § 47-2-298 was conditioned upon Fulton County making the payments required by it under § 47-2-298(b). In 1994, the General Assembly amended § 47-2-298 by diminishing the payments that Fulton County was required to remit to the ERS. [4] Under the amended version of § 47-2-298, the former employees would receive significantly less creditable service than under the 1990 version of § 47-2-298. In 1994, ERS notified the plaintiffs of the changes to § 47-2-298, and in August 1994, the ERS voluntarily dismissed its mandamus petition against Fulton County. Furthermore, in November 1994, the ERS notified the former employees that the ERS's lawsuit against Fulton County was dismissed after the 1994 amendment to § 47-2-298, and that, because Fulton County did not remit the funds required of it under the 1990 version of § 47-2-298, there was no authority under the 1990 version of § 47-2-298 for the ERS to credit the former employees' membership account with the ERS with their Fulton DFCS service....
...The former employees also asserted an alternative claim, based upon impairment of contract and estoppel, by which they sought credit for their years of service with Fulton DFCS. As for impairment of contract, the former employees contended that the 1990 version of § 47-2-298 became a part of their contract of employment with the State, and that the 1994 version of § 47-2-298 diminished their benefits and therefore improperly impaired their employment contract. The former employees also claimed that, because the ERS accepted the former employees' contribution under the 1990 version of § 47-2-298; because the ERS notified the former employees that they had received creditable service under that Code section; and because the former employees had reasonably relied on those assurances in continuing their state employment, the ERS was estopped to deny the employees benefits under the 1990 version of § 47-2-298....
...Because we have resolved the direct appeal in favor of the former employees, their defensive cross-appeal is moot and must be dismissed. [10] Judgment affirmed in Case No. S00A0140. Appeal dismissed in Case No. S00X0141. All the Justices concur. NOTES [1] See OCGA § 47-2-334(f)(2). [2] Former OCGA § 47-2-298(d) (Ga.L.1990, pp. 993, 996). [3] Former OCGA § 47-2-298(b)(1-3) (Ga.L.1990, pp....