2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 42 - Workers' Compensation › Chapter 7 - Funds › Section 42-7-90. Expenditures from fund.

From the State Accident Fund the following expenditures are authorized:
(1) for the payment of any award under this article made by the commission in connection with accidental injury or death of any official or employee of the State, any county or municipality therein, any political subdivision thereof or any agency or institution of the State or a county, municipality, or political subdivision thereof participating hereunder; or
(2) any other expenses authorized by law or approved by the State Fiscal Accountability Authority.
(3) first responder line of duty death benefit.
(a) For the purposes of this item, the term "first responder" means:
(i) an emergency medical technician as defined in Section 44-61-20(12);
(ii) a law enforcement officer as defined in Section 23-23-10(E)(1);
(iii) a corrections officer as described in Section 23-1-145 or Section 24-1-280;
(iv) reserves as defined in Section 23-28-10(A);
(v) constables appointed pursuant to Section 23-1-60;
(vi) a fire department worker who serves on a paid or voluntary basis for a firefighting agency, fire department, or a volunteer fire department and who performs duties related to rescue, fire suppression, and public safety; or
(vii) a coroner as defined in Section 17-5-5(3) or a deputy coroner as defined in Section 17-5-5(5) who directly engages in examining, treating, or directing persons during an emergency.
(b) Upon receipt by the State Accident Fund of the satisfactory proof of death of a first responder as defined in subitem (a) whose death was a natural and proximate result of an injury by external accident or violence incurred while undergoing a hazard peculiar to the first responder's employment as a first responder while in the actual performance of his duty, provided that his death is not the result of the first responder's wilful negligence, suicide, or intentionally self-inflicted bodily injury, there must be paid from the State Accident Fund to the designated beneficiary a one-time, lump sum benefit payment of seventy-five thousand dollars.
(c) The amount of the benefit provided for in subitem (b) is increased to a total of one hundred fifty thousand dollars if the first responder is killed in the line of duty as defined above and the first responder's death is either:
(i) the result of an unlawful and intentional act of another person; or
(ii) the result of an accident that occurs:
(A) as a result of the first responder's response to fresh pursuit, defined as the pursuit of a person who has committed or is reasonably suspected of having committed a felony, misdemeanor, traffic infraction, or violation of a county or municipal ordinance;
(B) as a result of the first responder's response to what is reasonably believed to be an emergency;
(C) at the scene of a traffic accident to which the first responder has responded; or
(D) while the first responder is enforcing what is reasonably believed to be a traffic law or ordinance.
(d) Payments made pursuant to this item must be paid to the beneficiary designated for this benefit by the first responder in writing and filed with the State Accident Fund in a manner prescribed by the agency during the first responder's lifetime. If no designation is made, then the payment must be paid to the first responder's surviving spouse. If there is no surviving spouse, the payment must be paid to the first responder's surviving children in equal portions. If there is no surviving spouse or child, the benefit is payable to the first responder's surviving parents in equal portions. If a beneficiary is not designated and there is no surviving child, spouse, or parent, then the sum must be paid to the first responder's estate. The payments required by this subsection are in addition to any other benefit set forth in this chapter or otherwise in law, including worker's compensation, but excluding first responder death benefit payments made to a member of a retirement system, and are exempt from the claims and demands of creditors of the first responder.
(e) Any benefits paid pursuant to this item are not subject to subrogation, assignment, set-off, or lien claimed pursuant to Section 42-1-560.
(f) Within thirty days after a written determination of the State Accident Fund regarding payment, a person or representative of the estate, as set out in subitem (d), may seek relief by requesting a contested case hearing before the Administrative Law Court in accordance with its rules. A hearing may be requested to contest any part of the decision made pursuant to this section.
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 72-459; 1952 Code Section 72-459; 1947 (45) 147; 1976 Act No. 709 Part II Section 21; 1978 Act No. 628; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 993, eff July 1, 1993; 2023 Act No. 75 (S.108), Section 3, eff June 19, 2023.
Code Commissioner's Note
At the direction of the Code Commissioner, references in this section to the offices of the former State Budget and Control Board, Office of the Governor, or other agencies, were changed to reflect the transfer of them to the Department of Administration or other entities, pursuant to the directive of the South Carolina Restructuring Act, 2014 Act No. 121, Section 5(D)(1), effective July 1, 2015.
Effect of Amendment
2023 Act No. 75, Section 3, added (3).