Does a retired judge have a vested right to a percentage of the salary of a successor judge's successor?

Petitioners' remaining claim of direct support rests on Olson v. Cory (1980) 27 Cal.3d 532, 178 Cal.Rptr. 568, 636 P.2d 532. At issue was the validity of the repeal of a statute which resulted in a full Cola for judicial pensioners who had retired before the statute was enacted. The court held that the repeal of the statute was invalid regardless whether the pensioners had earned a vested right in the full Cola by service after its enactment. Petitioners conclude therefrom that benefits given retirees after retirement cannot be reduced regardless whether they earned vested rights to them. Petitioners misread the case.

The holding is predicated upon a vested contract right which the retired member did hold. The right was earned not by service under the Cola statute but by service under a statute which measured retirement rights as a percentage of the salary of the judge's successor in office. If the successor had vested rights to a full cost of living adjustment in salary by service after its enactment the pensioner obtained a vested right to a percentage of that salary by virtue of the statute in effect at the time of retirement. The court said: "Contractually, each judicial pensioner is entitled to some fixed percentage of the salary payable to the [successor] judge.... The resolution of pensioner vested rights, then, is dependent on the foregoing resolution of [the successor] judges' vested rights...." (Olson v. Cory, supra, 27 Cal.3d at pp. 541-542, 178 Cal.Rptr. 568, 636 P.2d 532, emphasis

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