2013 New York Consolidated Laws
RSS - Retirement & Social Security
Article 14 - (500 - 520) COORDINATED-ESCALATOR RETIREMENT PLAN
509 - Accidental death benefits.

 
    §  509.  Accidental  death  benefits. a. The eligible beneficiary of a
  member in service, or a vested  member  that  dies  as  a  result  of  a
  qualifying  World  Trade  Center  condition as defined in section two of
  this chapter, shall be entitled to an accidental death  benefit  in  the
  form  of a pension equal to fifty percent of such member's final average
  salary if, upon application filed within two years after  the  death  of
  the  member,  the  head  of  the  retirement system determines that such
  member:
    1. Died before the effective date of retirement, as  the  natural  and
  proximate  result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty in
  the service upon which membership was based, and
    2. Did not cause such accident by his or her own willful negligence.
    Notwithstanding the provisions of section two hundred  forty-two,  two
  hundred forty-three or two hundred forty-four of the military law or the
  provisions  of  any other law to the contrary and solely for the purpose
  of determining eligibility for an accidental  death  benefit,  a  member
  shall  be considered to have died as the natural and proximate result of
  an accident sustained in the performance of duty  provided  such  member
  was  on the payroll in the service upon which membership is based at the
  time he or she was ordered to active duty pursuant to Title  10  of  the
  United  States  Code,  with  the armed forces of the United States or to
  service in the uniformed services pursuant to Chapter 43 of Title 38  of
  the  United States Code and died while on such active duty or service in
  the uniformed services on or after June fourteenth, two thousand five.
    b. If an eligible beneficiary receiving the accidental  death  benefit
  hereunder  becomes  ineligible  to continue to receive such benefit, the
  benefit shall be continued for all other members of the  eligible  class
  of  beneficiaries and, if none, to each successive class, if any, during
  their eligibility therefor.
    c. If the aggregate benefits under the provisions of this section have
  not exceeded the amount of the ordinary lump sum death  benefit  because
  of  the absence of eligible beneficiaries or because those beneficiaries
  formerly eligible are  no  longer  eligible  for  payments  pursuant  to
  section  five  hundred  one, then the difference between the amounts, if
  any, paid under this section and the amount of  the  ordinary  lump  sum
  death benefit shall be paid to:
    1.  The  last eligible beneficiary or beneficiaries, if surviving, who
  were receiving pension payments hereunder or, if none
    2.  The  distributees  of  the  member,  if  there  were  no  eligible
  beneficiaries  at  the  member's  death,  or  the  persons  who would be
  distributees of the member had he died intestate on the  date  that  the
  last eligible beneficiary died or became ineligible.