Opinion
182 SSM 28.
Decided September 14, 2004.
Appeal, by permission of the Court of Appeals, from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial Department, entered February 3, 2003. The Appellate Division (1) reversed, on the law, a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Kenneth A. Davis, J.), entered in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78, which had granted a petition to annul respondents' denial of benefits to petitioners pursuant to General Municipal Law § 207-c and directed the respondents to pay such benefits, (2) confirmed the determinations, (3) denied the petition, and (4) dismissed the proceeding on the merits.
Matter of Schafer v. Reilly, 302 AD2d 394, reversed.
Certilman Balin Adler Hyman, LLP, East Meadow ( Wayne J. Schaefer of counsel), for appellants.
Respondents precluded.
Chief Judge KAYE and Judges G.B. SMITH, CIPARICK, ROSENBLATT, GRAFFEO, READ and R.S. SMITH concur in memorandum.
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, with costs, and the judgment of Supreme Court reinstated.
The Appellate Division upheld the Department's denial of section 207-c benefits to petitioners — corrections officers employed by the Nassau County Sheriff's Department — based on erroneous application of a "heightened risk" standard. Eligibility for General Municipal Law § 207-c benefits is not contingent upon a covered municipal employee's "demonstrating an injury sustained in the performance of special work related to the heightened risks and duties inherent in law enforcement" ( Matter of Theroux v. Reilly, 1 N.Y.3d 232, 239). Rather, "to be eligible for section 207-c benefits, a covered municipal employee need only prove," as did petitioners in this case, "a `direct causal relationship between job duties and the resulting illness or injury'" ( Matter of Theroux, 1 N.Y.3d at 243-244).
On review of submissions pursuant to section 500.4 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals ( 22 NYCRR 500.4), order reversed, etc.