New York Public Personnel Law: Determining if a disability was “job related”

August 15, 2011

Determining if a disability was “job related”

Determining if a disability was “job related”

Roach v McCall, 284 AD2d 746

V. Robert Roach, Town of Webb Union Free School District head bus driver, applied for accidental disability retirement benefits based on injuries to his right shoulder he claimed resulted from employment-related accidents in 1985, 1995 and 1996. These accidents, he contended, incapacitated him from performing his head bus driver duties. The Comptroller rejected Roach's application after concluding that his condition did not result from employment-related accidents.

John Cambareri, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, testifying on behalf of the State and Local Employees' Retirement System, said that, in his opinion, Roach's disability was the result of traumatic arthritis in his right shoulder stemming from a shoulder dislocation suffered by Roach as a teenager. Understandably, Roach's expert medical witnesses testified to the contrary.

The Appellate Division sustained the Comptroller's rejection of Roach's application, holding that where there is substantial evidence to support his decision, “it lies within the exclusive authority of the Comptroller to evaluate divergent medical opinions in the process of determining whether a claimant is entitled to accidental disability retirement benefits.”

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