The question in this case was whether a corrections officer was injured an “act of any inmate” when an intoxicated inmate fell on her?
Retirement & Social Security Law (RSSL) § 607-c is one of several provisions in the RSSL that provides performance-of-duty disability retirement benefits for members of the State and Local Employees’ Retirement System (SLERS). That provision, like its counterparts elsewhere in the RSSL, provides that a covered member will be eligible for such retirement benefits if he or she was injured “as the natural and proximate result of any act of any inmate.” RSSL § 607-c(a).
In this case, petitioner corrections officer was called to transport an intoxicated inmate from a local courthouse. When they arrived back at the local jail, the inmate could not stand on her own and fell as she attempted to exit the van, hitting petitioner who was trying to break the inmate’s fall.
Petitioner sought performance-of-duty disability retirement benefits, but the Comptroller denied her application. Petitioner then challenged that determination in a CPLR article 78 proceeding, which Supreme Court transferred to the Third Department on substantial evidence review. The Third Department confirmed the Comptroller’s determination, holding that the phrase “any act of any inmate” requires an affirmative act on the part of an inmate that is “volitional or disobedient” and that no such affirmative act occurred in this case. The Court of Appeals granted leave to appeal.
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