Section 376. 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 three hundred 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-six,  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.
    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 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. 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  three  hundred
  fifty-one of this article.
    d.  A  member  may  withdraw his accumulated contributions at any time
  subject to the limitations contained in section three hundred  fifty-one
  of  this article. The withdrawal of a member's accumulated contributions
  shall terminate his right to a vested retirement allowance.