§2258. Disability retirement

            A.(1) Except as provided in Paragraph (2) of this Subsection, 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 an employee who formerly had a disability shall be governed by the provisions of R.S. 11:215 through 224.

            (2)(a) No member is eligible for a disability benefit if his disability is a direct or indirect result of a condition that existed prior to membership in this system. For example but not as a limitation, if a member's disability develops because his service exacerbates an injury sustained prior to membership in this system, he is not eligible for benefits stemming from that disability.

            (b) In determining whether a member's disability is a result of a condition that existed prior to membership in this system, the board of trustees shall consider medical and other factual information; however, the board shall not consider the fact that the member was determined by medical examination to be fit for employment as a firefighter as indicative of the absence of preexisting conditions.

            B. The board of trustees shall award disability benefits to eligible members who have been officially certified as having a disability by the State Medical Disability Board unless the board of trustees determines that the disability is a direct or indirect result of a condition that existed prior to employment in this system. 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 acquires a total disability 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 acquired a disability or incapacitating condition 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 acquires a disability 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) Repealed by Acts 2017, No. 22, §1, eff. June 3, 2017.

            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 retiree with a disability. If the surviving spouse receiving benefits pursuant to this Subsection remarries, such benefits shall continue without interruption, regardless of when the remarriage occurs.

            D.(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of R.S. 23:1225, when any member acquires a disability and is entitled to a disability benefit from the retirement system, the disability benefit payable for any month that the member is also receiving workers' 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 workers' 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.

            (2) On or before May thirty-first of each calendar year, the system shall submit to the workers' compensation payor the name, social security number, and amount of reduction to the member's benefit payable by the retirement system for the forthcoming fiscal year. The reported reduction shall be presumed correct unless the workers' compensation payor objects to the reduction amount by written notice to the system on or before June thirtieth of the same calendar year.

            E. Should any member who is on disability retirement cease to have a disability 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; Acts 2008, No. 75, §1, eff. June 5, 2008; Acts 2011, No. 277, §1, eff. July 1, 2011; Acts 2014, No. 811, §4, eff. June 23, 2014; Acts 2016, No. 209, §1, eff. May 26, 2016; Acts 2017, No. 22, §1, eff. June 3, 2017; Acts 2017, No. 24, §1.

NOTE: SEE ACTS 1985, NO. 297, §2.

NOTE: Acts 2014, No. 811 changed terminology referring to persons with disabilities throughout the La. Revised Statutes and codes of law, and included a listing of terms that were deleted and their respective successor terms (See Acts 2014, No. 811, §36). The Act provides that it is not the intent of the legislature that changes in terminology effected therein alter or affect in any way the substance, interpretation, or application of any law or administrative rule; further provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to expand or diminish any right of or benefit for any person provided by any law or administrative rule (See Acts 2014, No. 811, §35(C) and (D)).