Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. v. Administrator, Department of Employment Security

DENNIS, Justice.

In this case we are called upon the determine whether a lump sum payment of lifetime benefits under a retirement or pension plan disqualifies a retiree for unemployment compensation benefits for any period of time other than the week in which the lump sum is paid.

*991Relator, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, employed Gaddie Scroggins for twenty-eight years at its plant in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The company provides a retirement benefits program for its employees which Scroggins joined in 1948. Initially, both he and the company made payments into the retirement fund.1 However,…