Nolan

Peace officers and firefighters sometimes put in for a disability retirement based on "mental incapacity" where the alleged incapacity derives fundamentally from the fact that they aren't getting along with their colleagues. The "incapacity" is manifested in some fear about the way fellow officers will behave toward them in the future. (E.g., Haywood v. American River Fire Protection Dist. (1998) 67 Cal. App.4th 1292, 1296 , 79 Cal.Rptr.2d 749 [firefighter with history of disciplinary problems claimed entitlement to disability retirement because of fear that he would be treated unfairly if he returned to work].)

The present case involves such an officer. However, in determining whether the officer was mentally incapacitated, the trial judge applied the wrong standard. The trial judge assumed that it was enough that the officer feared retaliation from his former colleagues in the Anaheim Police Department.

That is not the standard. Fear arising out of a fear of retaliation by individuals in one department does not translate into an incapacity that keeps an officer from working elsewhere. The relevant statute, Government Code section 21156, uses the phrase "state…