The Third Appellate District reversed a judgment and remanded the action with directions. The court held that the California State Teachers’ Retirement Board had the authority and duty to consider whether to relieve a disability retirement benefits applicant of the consequences of her late-filed 2005 application where her lack of contemporaneous evidence of disability stemmed from the agency’s own misinformation to the applicant about her eligibility to apply for benefits in 1999.
Melanie Welch was attacked by a group of students in October 1998 while she was working as a teacher in Oakland. Welch had less than five years of service credits at the time, and she never worked as a full-time teacher again.
