In Hittle v. Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement Assn. (1985) 39 Cal.3d 374, a disabled employee was not informed of his eligibility for disability retirement by his pension plan administrator, and he thereafter withdrew his retirement contributions because he was unable to work and his service retirement had not vested. (Hittle, supra, 39 Cal.3d at pp. 381-382.) When he learned that he was in fact eligible to apply for a disability retirement, he sought to redeposit his contributions and reinstate his retirement benefits. When the plan administrators denied his request, he brought a petition for writ of mandate seeking to set aside that decision. (Id. at pp. 382-383.) The California Supreme Court issued a writ of mandate compelling the county's retirement association to reinstate him in the plan because it had failed to inform him that he was eligible for a disability retirement. In so doing the high court stated the retirement plan administrators had a "fiduciary duty to fully inform its members ... of their retirement options." (Id. at p. 391; see id. at pp. 392-394.)