Musquiz
Musquiz v. United States Railroad Retirement Board
Opinion
Opinion
I. Factual and Procedural History
The RRA, codified at 45 U.S.C. § 231 et seq., “replaces the Social Security Act for rail industry employers and employees and provides monthly annuities for employees based on age and service or on disability.” “The Railroad Retirement Act,” Attorney’s Guide to the Partition of Railroad Retirement Annuities (07-20), U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (last updated Feb. 16, 2024). 1 The RRB is “an independent agency in the executive branch of the Federal government” that administers the RRA. Id. Domingo Musquiz is now seventy-three years old. Musquiz worked in the rail industry for about twenty-seven years and eleven months. Musquiz’s last day of rail industry employment was February 1, 2006. On April 4, 2010,
1 Available at: https://www.rrb.gov/Resources/LegalInformation/PartitionofRRA/The_ RRA, https://perma.cc/6H3S-Q8KC.
MUSQUIZ V. U.S. RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD
Musquiz started work at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital (“SBCH”), a non-rail industry employer. In the spring of 2012, Musquiz learned that SBCH planned to let him go in June. On May 22, 2012, Musquiz applied by telephone to the RRB for a reduced-age annuity. In his telephone…