Labor & Employment Law

Retiring upon attaining the mandatory age of retirement bars claim for line of duty sick leave benefits

General Municipal Law §92-d provides for sick leave benefits to certain employees with qualifying World Trade Center conditions as defined by §2 of the Retirement and Social Security Law. 

A former fire chief [Chief] commenced this CPLR Article 78 proceeding against his former employer [City] in an effort to have the City's determination denying his application for line-of-duty sick leave pursuant to General Municipal Law §92-d annulled. Supreme Court granted the City's motion to dismiss the Chief's petition, agreeing with the City that the Chief's Article 78 action was moot. The Chief appealed.

The Appellate Division affirmed the Supreme Court's ruling, observing that after the Chief filed his Article 78 petition in this case he attained "the mandatory retirement age pursuant to Retirement and Social Security Law §370 (b) and retired with the maximum amount of accrued sick leave."

The court explained that it is "a fundamental principle of our jurisprudence that the power of a court to declare the law only arises out of, and is limited to, determining the rights of persons which are actually controverted in a particular case pending before the tribunal," referencing Matter of Hearst Corp. v Clyne, 50 NY2d 707, at page 713.

Opining that "[u]nder the circumstances here, Supreme Court properly dismissed the petition as moot," the Appellate Division held that this proceeding is "not of the class that should be preserved as an exception to the mootness doctrine."

The decision is posted on the Internet at http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2020/2020_05665.htm

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on October 16, 2020 (boomark / email).