§ 76. Vested retirement allowance. a. A member who discontinues
service other than by death or retirement:

1. who has credit for at least five years of total service, or

2. who has credit for at least five years of total service, including
a minimum of five years of member service during which the member
contributed to the system and/or participated in an
increased-take-home-pay or non-contributory plan, and who does not
withdraw his or her accumulated contributions, shall be entitled to make
application pursuant to section seventy of this article for a vested
retirement allowance to be effective on or after the first day of the
month following his or her attainment of sixty years of age. The
retirement allowance provided by this section shall vest automatically
upon such discontinuance of service by such member.

3. In the case of such a member who discontinues service other than by
death or retirement after March thirty-first, nineteen hundred
sixty-five, who had been contributing toward and/or participating in an
increased-take-home-pay or non-contributory plan for retirement on a
basis other than retirement at age sixty for five years preceding his or
her discontinuance of service, he or she shall be entitled to make
application for a vested retirement allowance to be effective on or
after the first day of the month following his or her attainment of
fifty-five years of age.

4. In the case of a member who discontinues service other than by
death or retirement after March thirty-first, nineteen hundred
sixty-six, who had been contributing toward retirement on the basis of
the plan contained in section eighty of this article for at least five
years, he or she shall receive at retirement, on the date when the
member would have completed twenty years of service had he or she
continued in the service covered by such section, a retirement allowance
as computed in accordance with the provisions of subdivision b of this
section.

b. The vested retirement allowance shall be computed and paid in
accordance with the provisions of the plan of which the member had been
a participant provided, however, that, except for those eligible for
benefits pursuant to sections eighty or eighty-a of this chapter, if the
service fraction used to compute the retirement allowance or the pension
provides a benefit greater than that which would have been provided had
the service fraction one-sixtieth been used to compute the benefit, the
service fraction one-sixtieth shall be used to compute the vested
retirement allowance unless such plan shall specify another fraction to
be used to compute the vested retirement allowance. Except for those
covered for retirement pursuant to sections eighty or eighty-a of this
chapter the vested retirement allowance shall not be paid before the
member attains age fifty-five.

c. In the event of the death of such member prior to the effective
date of his retirement his accumulated contributions shall be paid to
his beneficiary or estate in accordance with section fifty-one of this
article.

d. A member may withdraw his accumulated contributions at any time
subject to the limitations contained in section fifty-one of this
article. The withdrawal of a member's accumulated contributions shall
terminate his right to a vested retirement allowance.