Section 27-17-01 - Retirement of supreme court judges and district court judges1. Every judge of the supreme court or of the district court, including one who has served or shall have served in either or both capacities, shall, at the time the judge ceases to be such judge and regardless of the individual's age at that time and without further payment by that individual into the judicial retirement fund, acquire a vested right to the judicial retirement salary herein provided for, payable upon application therefor at any time after that individual has attained any of the retirement ages with years of service, as follows:a. 65 and 20 years of service;b. 66 and 18 years of service;c. 67 and 16 years of service;d. 68 and 14 years of service;e. 69 and 12 years of service; orf. 70 and 10 years of service. Provided, however, that any judge of the supreme court or district court who is appointed or elected to such court from and after July 1, 1960, who has become eligible for retirement hereunder but fails to make application therefor prior to attaining the age of seventy-three years, shall automatically waive all retirement benefits hereunder and shall receive a return of only such moneys as have been retained by the state of North Dakota as a judicial retirement assessment, upon the salary of such judge.
2. If a judge has served fewer than the years of service above required for any given retirement age, the judge is entitled to receive judicial retirement salary only in proportion that the judge's years of service bear to the years of service otherwise required for retirement at such age. Any judge who has not served at least ten years on reaching that individual's seventy-third birthday may not be deemed to have waived retirement benefits under this chapter, provided the judge retires at the expiration of the judge's present term.3. The amount of judicial retirement salary payable to a retired judge under subsection 1 must be equal to fifty percent of the annual salary payable to judges of the classification the retired judge had at the time the individual retired, provided that prior to retirement the individual was re-elected as a judge of either the supreme or district court following July 1, 1973, but in no event may the individual's judicial retirement salary be computed upon a judicial salary less than the one the individual last received prior to re-election. The amendment to this section may not be construed to affect supreme or district court judges who shall have retired prior to July 1, 1973, or who shall retire during or at the end of their term of office which commenced prior to that date. As used in this subsection, the word "re-elected" also includes election of a former district judge to the supreme court, and election of a former supreme court judge to the district court.4. The judicial retirement salary payable under this section must be paid to the retired judge during the remainder of the individual's natural life and must be paid by the director of the office of management and budget, within thirty days after receiving application therefor, in the same manner as salaries are paid to judges of the district court and judges of the supreme court, except that judicial retirement salaries are not subject to judicial retirement assessment.5. In lieu of receiving the judicial retirement salary otherwise payable under this chapter, the judge, at any time after having attained retirement age, may irrevocably elect to receive judicial retirement salary according to one of the following optional modes of payment:a. First Option. Three-fourths of the judge's retirement salary payable to the judge alone until death and thereafter one-half of such amount payable to the surviving spouse upon the spouse's attaining sixty-two years of age and until the spouse remarries or dies.b. Second Option. Two-thirds of the judge's retirement salary payable to the judge alone until death and thereafter a like amount payable to the surviving spouse upon the spouse's attaining sixty-two years of age and until the spouse remarries or dies.c. Third Option. One-half of the judge's retirement salary payable to the judge until death and a like amount payable to the spouse upon the spouse's attaining sixty-two years of age and so long as the spouse continues to be the judge's spouse or unremarried surviving spouse. The election of one of the foregoing optional modes of payment must be made in the application for payment of judicial retirement salary, or by written declaration of such election, signed by the judge and delivered to the director of the office of management and budget. In the event the judge has elected an optional mode of payment and dies without having made application for judicial retirement salary, the judicial retirement salary payable to the surviving spouse according to the judge's option is payable to the surviving spouse in the same manner as if the judge had made application for judicial retirement salary. In the event that a judge entitled to retirement pay dies without having elected an optional mode of payment, the surviving spouse is entitled to payments as provided by the first option as set forth in subdivision a. Judicial retirement salary payable according to one of the foregoing optional modes of payment must be paid in like manner as the full judicial retirement salary is paid. Any judge who retired prior to the effective date of the amendment to this section as provided for in chapter 222 of the 1961 Session Laws, and otherwise eligible for the optional modes of payment herein provided for, may apply for one of the optional modes of payment by written declaration to the director of the office of management and budget; provided, however, such judge shall repay to the state treasury the amount of money the individual has drawn since the date of the individual's retirement in excess of what the individual would have drawn if the individual had chosen the optional mode of payment now applied for at the date of the individual's retirement.