Ayers v. Public Sch. Emps. Ret. Sys. of Ga.

The trial court erred in denying the plaintiff Public School Employees Retirement System's motion for a directed verdict in its action seeking to recover three months of benefit payments mistakenly made to the defendant's mother after her death.

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The Public School Employees Retirement System of Georgia PSERS filed suit against Appellant Leroy Ayers to recover three months of benefit payments to his mother, Esther Ayers, that PSERS mistakenly made after Mrs. Ayers had died. Appellant answered and counterclaimed, and a jury ultimately returned a $5,000 verdict in favor of Appellant. PSERS appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the trial court erred in denying PSERS’s motion for a directed verdict. See Pub. Sch. Emps. Ret. Sys. of Ga. v. Ayers, 319 Ga. App. 234 734 SE2d 461 2012. We granted certiorari.

As explained below, the statutes that establish Mrs. Ayers’s contract for retirement benefits do not authorize the payment of monthly retirement benefits beyond the life of Mrs. Ayers and her designated joint annuitant—Mrs. Ayers’s husband, Grover Ayers, who predeceased her. Accordingly, no benefits were payable to Appellant after Mrs. Ayers’s death. The Court of Appeals correctly concluded that the trial court erred in denying PSERS’s motion for a directed verdict, but did so primarily based on analysis of retirement forms Mrs. Ayers filled out and correspondence she exchanged with PSERS instead of analysis of the statutory scheme. We disagree with that rationale, but agree with the result, so we affirm the Court of Appeals’ judgment.1

Ayers v. Public Sch. Emps. Ret. Sys. of Ga.

The trial court erred in denying the plaintiff Public School Employees Retirement System's motion for a directed verdict in its action seeking to recover three months of benefit payments mistakenly made to the defendant's mother after her death.

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