State Retirement Board v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board

This appeal presents a single question of law: may a former State employee be deprived of the right to apply for an accidental disability pension solely because he had previously applied for and received early retirement payments? We answer the question in the negative and affirm the judgment of the Superior Court which remanded the case to the State Retirement Board for further proceedings.

Joseph Olson, the applicant, served as a boatswain with the Department of Natural Resources for over twenty-four years. On July 11, 1972, after a day of strenuous duty in Boston harbor, he suffered a…