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Statutorypresumption that an individual suffered a disease of the heart as a result ofthe performance of duty rebutted by medical evidence to the contrary
Lawless v DiNapoli, 56 AD3d 1114
A member of the New York State Employees’ Retirement System [NYSERS] appliedfor performance of duty disability retirement benefits alleging that he waspermanently incapacitated as the result of a heart attack he sufferedapproximately six months earlier. The member filed his application relying uponthe statutory presumption contained in Retirement and Social Security Law §507-b(c).
§507-b(c) provides that “…any condition of impairment of health caused bydiseases of the heart, resulting in disability or death to a member covered bythis section, presently employed and who shall have sustained such disabilitywhile so employed, who successfully passed a physical examination on entry intoservice as a correction officer or security hospital treatment assistant, whichexamination failed to disclose evidence of any disease or other impairment ofthe heart, shall be presumptive evidence that it was incurred in theperformance and discharge of duty, unless the contrary be proved by competentevidence.”
NYSERS conceded that the individual was permanently incapacitated from theperformance of his duties, but decided that his disability was not sustained asa result of the discharge of his duties as a correction officer and rejectedhis application for line-of-duty disability benefits. The Hearing Officerupheld the denial, concluding that the proof submitted by the Retirement Systemwas sufficient to rebut the statutory "incurred in the line of dutypresumption" set out in Retirement and Social Security Law §507-b(c).
The Appellate Division, noting that the Retirement System did not dispute thatthe member had successfully passed his pre-employment physical or that he isnow permanently disabled from performing his duties as a correction officer dueto his heart attack and underlying coronary artery disease, said that becausethe applicant elected to rely upon the statutory presumption contained in §507-b(c),the issue to resolve was whether the Retirement System had rebutted thispresumption with competent medical evidence.
The court said that its conclusion, after its review of the record as a whole,was that the Retirement System successfully rebutted the statutory presumptionand thus properly rejected the member’s application for benefits.
The full text of the decisions is posted on the Internet at:http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2008/2008_09335.htm
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