Martinez

*1161 Government Code 1 section 21156, part of the Public Employees Retirement Law, has always equated disability with a state employee being "incapacitated physically or mentally for the performance of his or her duties." And ordinarily, a governmental employee loses the right to claim disability benefits if terminated for cause. A pair of decisions from the Third Appellate District carved out three exceptions to this general rule. First, under Haywood v. American River Protection Dist . (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 1292 , 79 Cal.Rptr.2d 749 ( Haywood ), a terminated-for-cause employee can still qualify for disability retirement when the conduct which prompted the termination was the result of the employee's disability. Second, under Smith v. City of Napa (2004) 120 Cal.App.4th 194 , 14 Cal.Rptr.3d 908 ( Smith ), a terminated employee may qualify for disability retirement if he or she had a "matured right" to a disability retirement prior to the conduct which prompted the termination. Third, Smith further recognized that there might be instances where "a court, applying principles of equity, will deem an employee's right to a disability retirement to be matured and thus survive a…