Pub. Employees' Ret. Sys. v. Santa Clara Valley Transp. Auth.

*1042 California's Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) ( Gov. Code, § 20002 ), 1 as opposed to the board that administers the system (§ 9353), filed a complaint seeking declaratory relief regarding the proper interpretation of the effect of section 7522.02, subdivision (a)(3) (hereafter section 7522.02(a)(3) ) on the pension benefits of transit workers. The CalPERS executive office had announced its own interpretation, which resulted in over 400 pending administrative appeals. As representative parties, the CalPERS executive office named as defendants a transit agency (the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (Santa Clara Transit) ) and an employee representative for a different Bay Area transit agency (the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 (Local 1555) ), which had been supporting the arguments of their employees and members, and had filed administrative appeals of their own.

Santa Clara Transit filed a demurrer, which the trial court sustained, entering judgment in its behalf. Local 1555 then filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, which the trial court granted, entering a separate judgment in its behalf. In each ruling, the trial court concluded that…