2006 Louisiana Laws - RS 11:2258 — Disability retirement

§2258.  Disability retirement

A.  Eligibility for disability benefits, procedures for application for disability benefits, procedures for the certification of continuing eligibility for disability benefits, the authority of the board of trustees to modify disability benefits, and procedures governing the restoration to active service of a formerly disabled employee are specifically described and provided for in R.S. 11:201 through R.S. 11:224.

B.  The board of trustees shall award disability benefits to eligible members who have been officially certified as disabled by the State Medical Disability Board.  The disability benefit shall be determined as follows:

(1)(a)  Upon retirement for disability, any member under the age of fifty years shall receive a retirement allowance as provided in Subparagraph (c) or (d) of this Paragraph, whichever is applicable.

(b)  Upon retirement for disability, any member who has attained the age of fifty years shall receive the greater of:  either a retirement allowance based on his creditable years of service as provided in R.S. 11:2256 or the benefit provided by Subparagraph (c) or (d) of this Paragraph, whichever is applicable.

(c)  Any member who is totally disabled from an injury received in the line of duty, even though the member may have less than five years of creditable service, shall be paid, on a monthly basis, an annual pension of sixty percent of the average final compensation being received at the time of disability.

(d)  Any member of the system who has become disabled or incapacitated because of continued illness or as a result of any injury received, even though not in the line of duty, and who has five years of creditable service, but is not eligible for retirement under the provisions of R.S. 11:2256 may apply for retirement under the provisions of this Section and shall be retired on seventy-five percent of the retirement salary to which he would be entitled under R.S. 11:2256 if he were eligible thereunder or twenty-five percent of the member's average salary, whichever is greater.

(2)(a)  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a retired member or a Deferred Retirement Option Plan participant who becomes disabled for any reason provided for by law shall be permitted to apply for conversion of a service retirement to a service connected disability retirement.

(b)  To convert to a service connected disability retirement, pursuant to this Subparagraph, the applicant must demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the conditions causing the disability occurred during active employment as a firefighter, even though the actual physical disability may not have become manifest until after the effective date of either commencement of participation in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan or commencement of a service retirement.

(c)  The actuarial cost of any service connected disability benefit granted to a person pursuant to this Section shall not exceed the actuarial cost of the same person's service retirement.  In applying for this benefit, the member consents to any recalculation of the retirement benefit to provide actuarial equivalence with the service retirement benefit.  Any option selected by the person with regard to the receipt of his service retirement benefit shall be preserved.

(d)  The authority of a retired member or a Deferred Retirement Option Plan participant to convert from a service retirement to a service connected disability retirement pursuant to the provisions of this Subparagraph shall cease on July 1, 2011.  The Public Retirement Systems' Actuarial Committee shall publish reports as part of the actuarial valuations of this system and the reports shall include the results of studies of the actuarial impact of all such conversions occurring between July 1, 2001, and July 1, 2006, and between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2011.

C.  Should a member who is on disability retirement die and leave a surviving spouse, the surviving spouse shall receive a benefit of two hundred dollars per month.  When the member takes disability retirement he may in addition take an actuarially reduced benefit in which case the member's surviving spouse shall receive fifty percent of the disability benefit being paid immediately prior to the death of the disabled retiree.  If the surviving spouse remarries, such benefits shall cease; however, the benefits shall resume upon a subsequent divorce or death of the new spouse, and the approval of the board of trustees.

D.  Notwithstanding the provisions of R.S. 23:1225, when any member becomes disabled and is entitled to a disability benefit from the retirement system, the disability benefit payable for any month that the member is also receiving worker's compensation benefits shall be reduced, if necessary, so that the total of both benefits shall not exceed the member's average final compensation.  The benefit to be paid shall be computed such that the disability benefit from the retirement system and the worker's compensation benefit shall each be paid in respect to the ratio that each individual benefit bears to the total of both benefits, to which the member would be entitled prior to reduction, multiplied by the average final compensation of the member.

E.  Should any member who is on disability retirement cease to be disabled as determined by the State Medical Disability Board, the disability benefit being paid by the retirement system shall cease, and the former employing agency shall reemploy the member in the same rank and position that he held at the time of the occurrence of  his disability, and at the same rate of pay.  In the event that no such rank and position is available in the fire service of the former employing agency, the member shall be reemployed in a comparable position in the municipality or parish of the former employing agency if such a position is available.

Added by Acts 1979, No. 434, §1.  Amended by Acts 1980, No. 799, §2, eff. Aug. 1, 1980; Acts 1985, No. 297, §1; Redesignated from R.S. 33:2156 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991; Acts 1993, No. 447, §1; Acts 1995, No. 1047, §1; Acts 2001, No. 733, §1; Acts 2006, No. 588, §1, eff. July 1, 2006.

NOTE:  SEE ACTS 1985, NO. 297, §2.