Municipal Liability / Injury News:
Policeman Worker Compensation

GML 207-c provides for continuation of first party benefits, i.e., payment of salary, wages, medical and hospital expenses of policemen with injuries or illness incurred in the performance of their duties. The statute was originally passed in 1961. This statute provides for the payment of full salary to police and other municipal workers injured in the performance of their duties. The statute has been amended from time to time to add classes of employees in addition to fire and police officers, the Legislature each time pointing to the important and sometimes strenuous and dangerous risks other employees take in doing their duties. In a trio of Article 78 appeals reaching the Court of Appeals, the municipalities urged that a heightened risk standard should be used to determine eligibility for such payment which often lead to permanent disability payments. The court rejects such a standard since it is not contained in the original statute or in any successive amendments pointing to the fact that municipalities have always awarded 207-a benefits to firefighters irrespective of whether the injury causing activity was one entailing the "heightened risk" of firefighters. In each of the three cases, the various Appellate Divisions applied a heightened risk standard and upheld the municipalities denial of 207-c benefits and all were reversed citing the legislative history and express will of the Legislature which does not restrict eligibility on that criteria. Theroux v. Reilly; Wagman v. Kapica; James v. County of Yates Sheriff's Department, 1 N.Y.3d 232, WL 22844403.

As in all areas of municipal liability, care must be taken that the applicable law be researched at the inception of the claim and that the claims and defenses be explored by careful discovery and deposition questions.

The above materials are reproduced with the permission of the New York State Trial Lawyers Institute, all rights reserved.

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