Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 75

STATE PENSIONS

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 55, TITLE 29, DELAWARE CODE OF 1953, ENTITLED "STATE EMPLOYEES PENSION PLAN," BY REDEFINING ALLOWABLE INTERRUPTIONS TO INCLUDE VOLUNTARY SEVERANCE OF EMPLOYMENT DURING THE PERIOD FROM DECEMBER 7, 1941 TO NOVEMBER 15, 1946; BY PERMITTING CERTAIN EMPLOYEES RECEIVING PENSIONS TO BE EMPLOYED BY THE STATE OF DELAWARE AND ELECTED OR APPOINTED TO OFFICE UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS; BY PERMITTING CERTAIN PRESENT OR FORMER EMPLOYEES OF THE STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT WHO HAVE OTHERWISE REACHED THE MANDATORY AGE OF RETIREMENT TO CONTINUE THEIR EMPLOYMENT OR TO.BE REHIRED UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS; AND BY GIVING CREDIT FOR THE TIME SERVED BY CERTAIN STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES WHILE IN THE EMPLOY OF THE RESPECTIVE COUNTIES IN THE CARE, MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF COUNTY ROADS AND BRIDGES BEFORE THE SAME WERE TRANSFERRED TO THE STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:

Section 1. § 5501, Title 29, Delaware Code of 1953, is amended by adding at the end of sub-paragraph (3) of the first paragraph of said section the word "or" and by adding at the end of the first paragraph of said section a new sub-paragraph numbered (4) to read as follows:

(4) Voluntary severance of employment during the period from December 7, 1941 to November 15, 1946.

Section 2. § 5508, Title 29, Delaware Code of 1953, is amended to read as follows:

Any person receiving a pension under the provisions of this chapter may be employed by the State of Delaware in any capacity, if he is not over seventy (70) years of age, or may be appointed or elected to office regardless of age. During the period of such employment, appointment or elective term all pension payments shall cease unless he shall be employed or serve without pay.

Section 3. § 5521, Title 29, Delaware Code of 1953, is amended by adding after subsection of said section new subsections to read as follows:

Any person who was in the employ of the State Highway Department at any time prior to January 1, 1953 or employed by said department on the effective date of this subsection, who at the mandatory age of retirement did not or does not have fifteen (15) years of covered employment, if physically fit for employment, may be reemployed or retained in the employment of the State Highway Department until he shall have attained fifteen (15) years of covered employment and is eligible for pension benefits or becomes physically unfit for employment.

Any employee of the State Highway Department who prior to the effective date of this subsection had fifteen (15) years or more of employment at the date of his retirement from said Department, even though a portion of the interval of employment was subsequent to the time said employee attained the age of seventy (70) years shall be considered in covered employment for the entire period of his employment and shall be eligible for pension benefits in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.

Section 4. § 5522, Title 29, Delaware Code of 1953, is amended to read as follows:

§ 5522. Credit for time served by certain Highway Department employees

Any former or present employee of the State Highway Department who was employed by the Levy Courts of the respective counties in this State in the care, management and control of the County roads and bridges of the respective counties and at the time all the care and management and control of County roads and bridges was transferred to the State Highway Department was then employed by a Levy Court of this State in the care and management and control of the County roads and bridges or was at the time of said transfer an employee of the State Highway Department, shall in computing the number of years' service required to receive pension benefits within the meaning of this chapter, receive full credit for the time he was so employed by the Levy Court.

Approved May 14, 1953.