Forde v. Cory

In Forde v. Cory (1977) 66 Cal.App.3d 434, the Court considered the application of a provision of the Judges' Retirement Law. Under that law a judge could provide for survivor benefits for his spouse in the event he should die before reaching retirement eligibility, but if he chose to do so, his estate was not entitled to the normal lump sum death benefit. A similar law was enacted with respect to surviving children of a judge which was parallel to the surviving spouse provisions except that it omitted the provision that election to provide survivor benefits for children would be in lieu of the lump sum death benefit. After electing to provide survivor benefits for his children, and before becoming eligible to retire, a superior court judge died and his executor applied for both survivor benefits and a lump sum death benefit. In construing the provision this court relied, in part, upon a legislative enactment passed more than two years after the judge's death. The Court reasoned that the legislative expression of intent in the later statute was merely a clarification and not a change in the law. (66 Cal.App.3d at p. 438.)