Opinion
2013-05-21
In re Anthony PELLICANE, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Raymond KELLY, etc., et al., Respondents–Respondents.
Jeffrey L. Goldberg, Port Washington, for appellant. Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York (Keith M. Snow of counsel), for respondents.
Jeffrey L. Goldberg, Port Washington, for appellant. Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York (Keith M. Snow of counsel), for respondents.
MAZZARELLI, J.P., SWEENY, FREEDMAN, GISCHE, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Cynthia S. Kern, J.), entered March 20, 2012, denying the petition to annul respondents' determination, which denied petitioner's application for accident disability retirement benefits, and dismissing the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The statutory presumption of General Municipal Law § 207–k (Heart Bill) was overcome by credible medical evidence that petitioner's disabling heart condition is congenital and not related to occupational stress ( see Matter of Goodacre v. Kelly, 96 A.D.3d 625, 947 N.Y.S.2d 463 [1st Dept. 2012], lv. denied20 N.Y.3d 860, 2013 WL 599656 [2013] ). Although petitioner's physician opined that petitioner's hypertension and asymmetric left ventricular hypertrophy were induced by stress and exacerbated by the duties of petitioner's job, credible medical evidence supports the finding that the hypertension presented as relatively mild, and had not “caused its signature disease, generalized left ventricular hypertrophy” ( Matter of Knorr v. Kelly, 35 A.D.3d 326, 327, 825 N.Y.S.2d 364 [1st Dept. 2006];compare Matter of Lunt v. Kelly, 227 A.D.2d 200, 642 N.Y.S.2d 251 [1st Dept. 1996], lv. denied90 N.Y.2d 803, 661 N.Y.S.2d 179, 683 N.E.2d 1053 [1997] ).
We have considered petitioner's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.