2005 West Virginia Code - §15-2-35. — Same - When member dies after retirement or after serving twenty years.

§15-2-35. Same - When member dies after retirement or after serving twenty years.

When any member of said department has heretofore completed or hereafter shall complete twenty years of service or longer as a member of said department and has died or shall die from any cause or causes other than those specified in this article before having been retired by the retirement board, and when a member in retirement status has died or shall die after having been retired by the retirement board under the provisions of this article, there shall be paid annually in equal monthly installments from said fund to the surviving spouse of said member, commencing on the date of the death of said member and continuing during the lifetime or until remarriage of said surviving spouse an amount equal to three-fourths the retirement benefits said deceased member was receiving while in status of retirement, or would have been entitled to receive to the same effect as if such member had been retired under the provisions of this article immediately prior to the time of his or her death and in no event to be less than five thousand dollars unless otherwise required under section forty of this article and in addition thereto said surviving spouse shall be entitled to receive and there shall be paid to such surviving spouse from said fund the sum of one hundred dollars monthly for each dependent child or children. If such surviving spouse die, or remarry, or if there be no surviving spouse there shall be paid monthly from said fund to each dependent child or children of said deceased member a sum equal to twenty-five percent of the surviving spouse's entitlement. If there be no surviving spouse or no surviving spouse eligible to receive benefits and no dependent child or children there shall be paid annually in equal monthly installments from said fund to the dependent parents of said deceased member during their joint lifetimes a sum equal to the amount which a surviving spouse without children would have been entitled to receive: Provided, That when there shall be but one dependent parent surviving, such parent shall be entitled to receive during his or her lifetime one half the amount which both parents, if living, would have been entitled to receive.