Opinion
No. 501464.
June 21, 2007.
Carpinello, J. Appeal from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Board, filed February 7, 2006, which reduced a death benefit awarded to claimant.
Freedman, Wagner, Tabakman Weiss, New City (David MacRae Wagner of counsel), for appellant.
Gregory J. Allen, State Insurance Fund, New York City (Patricia M. Barry of counsel), for Village of Tarrytown and another, respondents.
Before: Cardona, P.J., Mercure, Crew III and Peters, JJ.
In 1987, decedent, a volunteer firefighter, suffered a work-related myocardial infarction and was subsequently classified as permanently totally disabled. In April 2002, he died as a result of a cardiac arrest which was determined to be causally related to this injury. Thereafter, claimant, decedent's widow, filed a claim for death benefits and a Workers' Compensation Law Judge (hereinafter WCLJ) awarded her, as relevant here, a lump-sum death benefit of $50,000 pursuant to Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law former § 7 (2). The workers' compensation carrier filed an application for review by the Workers' Compensation Board, contending that the WCLJ improperly granted claimant a. lump-sum death benefit in the amount of $50,000 in that Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law former § 7 (2) specifically limited such benefit to $10,000. The Board modified the WCLJ's determination by reducing claimant's lump-sum death benefit award to $10,000. She now appeals.
We reject claimant's argument that the Board erred in reducing her lump-sum death benefit award. When this claim arose, Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law former § 7 (2) provided for a $50,000 lump-sum death benefit to surviving spouses with the express proviso, however, "that nothing herein shall be construed as affording a greater benefit for those volunteer [firefighters] injured prior to the effective date of this act [i.e., May 9, 1998], however the spouse . . . of such [firefighter] shall continue to be eligible for a benefit in the sum of [$10,000]" (Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law former § 7 [2]; see L 2002, ch 139, § 1; L 1998, ch 415, § 3). Since decedent was injured in 1987, this proviso clearly applies, limiting claimant's award to $10,000 ( see generally Matter of Mace v Owl Wire Cable Co., 284 AD2d 672, 675; Matter of House v International Talc Co., 261 AD2d 687, 689).
Ordered that the decision is affirmed, without costs.