2023 New York Laws › RSS - Retirement and Social Security › Article 15 - Coordinated Retirement Plan › 607-B - Performance of Duty Disability Retirement.

§  607-b.  Performance of duty disability retirement. a. Any member of
the New York city employees' retirement system who is  employed  by  the
city of New York or by the New York city health and hospital corporation
in  the  position  of emergency medical technician or advanced emergency
medical technician, as those terms are defined in section three thousand
one of the public health  law,  who,  on  or  after  March  seventeenth,
nineteen    hundred   ninety-six,   becomes   physically   or   mentally
incapacitated for the performance of duties as the natural and proximate
result of an injury, sustained in the performance or discharge of his or
her duties shall be paid a performance  of  duty  disability  retirement
allowance  equal  to  three-quarters of final average salary, subject to
section 13-176 of the administrative code of the city of New  York.  Any
member  who has made application or who, after the effective date of the
chapter of the laws of two thousand four which amended this subdivision,
makes application for such performance of duty pension shall be entitled
to invoke the medical review procedure provided for in subdivision e  of
section  six  hundred  five  of  this  article, subject to the terms and
conditions set forth in such subdivision.
b. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or of any general  or
special  law  to  the  contrary,  a  member  covered by this section who
contracts HIV (where the member may have been exposed to a bodily  fluid
of  a  person  under  his  or her care or treatment, or while the member
examined, transported or otherwise had contact with such person, in  the
performance  of  his  or  her duties) tuberculosis or hepatitis, will be
presumed to have contracted such disease in the performance or discharge
of his or her  duties,  unless  the  contrary  be  proved  by  competent
evidence.
c.  1.  (a)  Notwithstanding  any provisions of this chapter or of any
general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or  rule  or
regulation  to the contrary, if any condition or impairment of health is
caused by a qualifying  World  Trade  Center  condition  as  defined  in
section  two  of  this chapter, it shall be presumptive evidence that it
was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty  and  the  natural
and  proximate  result  of  an  accident not caused by such member's own
willful negligence, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.
(b) the head  of  each  retirement  system  is  hereby  authorized  to
promulgate  rules  and  regulations  to implement the provisions of this
paragraph.
2. (a) Notwithstanding the  provisions  of  this  chapter  or  of  any
general,  special  or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or
regulation to the contrary, if a member who participated in World  Trade
Center  rescue, recovery or cleanup operations as defined in section two
of this chapter, and subsequently retired on a  service  retirement,  an
ordinary   disability  retirement,  a  performance  of  duty  disability
retirement, or was  separated  from  service  with  a  vested  right  to
deferred  payability  of  a retirement allowance, and subsequent to such
retirement or separation is determined by  the  comptroller  to  have  a
qualifying  World  Trade  Center condition, as defined in section two of
this chapter, upon such determination by  the  head  of  the  retirement
system,  it  shall  be presumed that such disability was incurred in the
performance and discharge of duty as the natural and proximate result of
an accident not caused by such member's own willful negligence, and that
the member would have been physically or mentally incapacitated for  the
performance  and  discharge of duty of the position from which he or she
retired had the condition been known and fully developed at the time  of
the  member's  retirement,  unless  the  contrary is proven by competent
evidence.
(b)  The  head   of   the   retirement   system   shall   consider   a
reclassification  of the member's retirement or vesting as an accidental
disability retirement effective as of the date of such reclassification.
(c)  Such  member's retirement option shall not be changed as a result
of such reclassification.
(d)  The  member's  former  employer  at  the  time  of  the  member's
retirement  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  be  heard  on the member's
application  for  reclassification  by  the  NYCERS  board  of  trustees
according to procedures developed by the NYCERS board of trustees.
(e)  The  head  of  each  retirement  system  is  hereby authorized to
promulgate rules and regulations to implement  the  provisions  of  this
paragraph.
d.  Notwithstanding  any  other  provision  of  this chapter or of any
general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or  rule  or
regulation  to the contrary, if a retiree or vestee who: (1) has met the
criteria of subdivision c of this section and retired on  a  service  or
disability  retirement,  would  have  met  the  criteria  if not already
retired on an accidental disability, or was separated from service  with
a vested right to deferred payability of a retirement allowance; and (2)
has  not been retired for more than twenty-five years; and (3) dies from
a qualifying World Trade Center condition, as defined in section two  of
this  chapter,  as  determined  by the applicable head of the retirement
system or applicable medical board, then unless the contrary  be  proven
by  competent  evidence,  such retiree or vestee shall be deemed to have
died as a natural and proximate result of an accident sustained  in  the
performance  of duty and not as a result of willful negligence on his or
her part. Such retiree's or vestee's eligible beneficiary, as set  forth
in  section  six  hundred  one  of this article, shall be entitled to an
accidental death benefit as provided by section  six  hundred  seven  of
this  article,  however, for the purposes of determining the salary base
upon which the accidental death benefit is calculated,  the  retiree  or
vestee shall be deemed to have died on the date of his or her retirement
or  separation  from  service  with vested rights. Upon the retiree's or
vestee's  death,  the  eligible  beneficiary  shall   make   a   written
application  to  the  head  of the retirement system within the time for
filing an application for an accidental death benefit as  set  forth  in
section  six hundred seven of this article requesting conversion of such
retiree's service, vested right or disability retirement benefit  to  an
accidental  death  benefit. At the time of such conversion, the eligible
beneficiary shall relinquish all  rights  to  the  prospective  benefits
payable  under  the  service or disability retirement benefit, or vested
right to such benefit, including  any  post-retirement  death  benefits,
since  the  retiree's  or vestee's death. If the eligible beneficiary is
not the only beneficiary receiving or  entitled  to  receive  a  benefit
under  the  service or disability retirement benefit (including, but not
limited to, post-retirement death benefits or benefits paid  or  payable
pursuant  to  the  retiree's option selection), or that will be eligible
under the vested right, the accidental death  benefit  payments  to  the
eligible  beneficiary  will be reduced by any amounts paid or payable to
any other beneficiary.
e. Notwithstanding any other provision  of  this  chapter  or  of  any
general,  special  or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or
regulation to the contrary, if a member who: (1) has met the criteria of
subdivision c of this section; (2)  dies  in  active  service  or  after
separating  from service with a vested right to deferred payability of a
retirement allowance, but prior to the  payability  of  that  retirement
allowance;  and (3) dies from a qualifying World Trade Center condition,
as defined in  section  two  of  this  chapter,  as  determined  by  the

applicable  head of the retirement system or applicable medical board to
have been caused by such  member's  participation  in  the  World  Trade
Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations, as defined in section two
of  this  chapter,  then  unless  the  contrary  be  proven by competent
evidence, such member shall be deemed to have  died  as  a  natural  and
proximate result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty and
not  as a result of willful negligence on his or her part. Such member's
eligible beneficiary, as set forth in section six hundred  one  of  this
article, shall be entitled to an accidental death benefit provided he or
she  makes  written  application  to  the  head of the retirement system
within the time for  filing  an  application  for  an  accidental  death
benefit as set forth in section six hundred seven of this article.