Bronner v. Gatewood

This is an appeal from a decision requiring the Employees' Retirement System of Alabama to pay certain preretirement death benefits to the plaintiff.

Robert M. Gatewood, the plaintiff's husband, worked for the State of Alabama for approximately thirty-six years. At the time of his death, Mr. Gatewood was chief of bureau design for the State Highway Department. As a member of the State Employees' Retirement System, Mr. Gatewood had become eligible to retire and receive benefits as early as April 1979. Upon Mr. Gatewood's death in November 1984, his surviving spouse, Mrs. Edna B. Gatewood,…