In Patton v. Governing Board (1978) 77 Cal.App.3d 495, the court dealt with a bus driver employee of a school district who received a disability retirement under the Retirement System. The issue again was whether he was entitled to his unused, accumulated sick leave. In Patton, the employee requested sick leave from his employer. This was refused and the employee was terminated by the employer and the question was whether an entitlement to sick leave had become vested prior to the termination. The employer contended that, at the time the employee made his request for sick leave, he was not actually sick. The trial court made a factual finding that at the time of the employee's termination, which was five days subsequent to his application for sick leave, he was not sick or disabled nor was he sick or disabled at the time that he applied for his sick leave. At one point the Patton court proceeded to construe section 21025.2 as meaning that "a member of the Retirement System who is too sick to work at the time of such member's retirement, whether or not sick leave has already been granted, is entitled to the use of all accumulated sick leave before retirement becomes effective. Sickness for purposes of entitlement to sick leave is universally recognized as an illness or injury interfering with one's ability to perform one's usual work so that absence from work is warranted." ( Patton, supra, 77 Cal.App.3d 495, 504.)