Wayne S. Ryerson v. Board of Trustees, Etc.

── Wayne S. Ryerson v. Board of Trustees, Etc. ── Court: New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division Date: May 14, 2026 Category: General NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court ." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited . R. 1:36-3. SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-1207-24 WAYNE S. RYERSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, TEACHERS' PENSION AND ANNUITY FUND, Respondent-Respondent. _________________________ Submitted April 28, 2026 – Decided May 14, 2026 Before Judges Chase and Augostini. On appeal from the Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund, Department of the Treasury, Agency Docket No. TPAF No. xx4432. Anthony Scordo, PC, attorney for appellant (Anthony Scordo, III, on the brief). Jennifer Davenport, Attorney General, attorney for respondent (Sookie Bae-Park, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel; Yi Zhu, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief). PER CURIAM Petitioner Wayne Ryerson appeals from the November 15, 2024 final agency decision of the Board of Trustees ("Board") of the Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund ("TPAF") which denied his application for ordinary disability retirement benefits finding he is not totally and permanently disabled from the performance of his duties. We affirm. I. Petitioner is seventy-three years old. He obtained a Bachelor's and Master's in speech pathology and worked for eighteen years, starting in 1981, as a speech therapist. In 1999, he enrolled in TPAF incident to his employment with the Orange City Board of Education. While his employment title changed over the years, Ryerson was "basically [employed as] . . . a 'speech therapist' for school children, diagnosing and treating children's speech disorders and collaborating with parents and teachers." At the onset of his employment, and for approximately fourteen years thereafter, petitioner worked in the Preschool Intervention and Referral Specialist program. In 2017, he was reassigned to work with the elementary and middle schools. As such, his new assignment required him to come and go from various school buildings while carrying students' files, booklets, and A-1207-24 2 instructional materials. According to petitioner, the buildings he was assigned to lacked elevators; therefore, when he was assigned to classrooms on middle or upper floors, he had to carry the items up and down several flights of stairs. His new position—though his general duties were roughly the same— required him to work with groups of students, not individuals, and carry more instructional materials. He was sometimes able to take multiple trips with his instructional materials, and on occasion he used a rolling cart. Ryerson's Medical History In 2002, Ryerson was struck by a car while crossing the street as a pedestrian and injured his neck. He underwent an MRI and treated with physical therapy. His neck issues "persisted . . . [and] got worse and worse . . . as [he] got older." In April 2006, Ryerson had a laminectomy 1 performed by Dr. Gamache due to radiating lower back pain, which caused numbness. Despite the procedure offering him short term relief, eventually all his symptoms returned. 1 A "[l]aminectomy is surgery to remove the back arch or part of a sp