Urge Albany to Act: Lobby to End Two Paydays for Injury

Urge Albany to Act
Lobby to End Two Paydays for Injury

Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo led a coalition of citizens' groups and public officials to Albany May 23 to press the State Legislature to close a loophole in a state statute allowing injured public employees to get a double payout on future lost earnings.

The Chief-Leader/Scott Kiernan DISASTER AVERTED: Sgt. Richard Hildebrand (center) of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Bridges and Tunnels Special Operations Division was honored May 24 for preventing a major accident on the Triborough Bridge. Four days earlier, Sergeant Hildebrand chased down a motorist who drove around police barricades and tried to push through 300 motorcyclists on a 'Freedom Ride' across the bridge. After making an illegal U-turn while almost hitting NYPD personnel, the motorist was apprehended. Sgt. Hildebrand accepted his medal of recognition from MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Susan Kupferman (second from left), accompanied by his father, retired Det. Richard Hildebrand (right) and his mother, Diane. The group included elected officials from both parties, the Citizen's Union, representatives from the State Attorney General's Office and several municipalities.

Allows Double-Dip

Mr. Cardozo told the assembled lawmakers that a "quirk" in state law compelled the Court of Appeals in 1999 to rule that disability pensions given to injured public employees to make up for lost earnings don't offset tort payouts awarded by a jury for the same reason.

That allows employees a "double dip" into the pockets of their municipal employers, the coalition contended. The group has proposed a bill that would require that jury awards to public employees for lost future earnings be reduced by the amount of disability pension or any other "collateral sources" of restitution the employee might receive to compensate for the same lost wages. Collateral sources could include any type of insurance (except life insurance) or Social Security disability payments.

A similar law requiring such an offset already exists for private-sector employers.

Public employees, however, if they are injured on the job due to employer negligence, usually receive a disability pension - a lifetime award consisting of some percentage of the employee's yearly salary, tax-free.

Some Can Sue

Employees who aren't covered by Workers' Compensation can also sue the employer and, if successful in presenting their case to a jury, receive an additional settlement on top of the existing pension. Although many public employees are prohibited by Workers' Compensation law from suing their employer, Mr. Cardozo said that double-dipping still costs the city $11 million annually.

There are two bills before the Assembly and the Senate, backed by 33 bi-partisan co-sponsors, which seek to make this legislative change. Similar bills have been passed by the Senate previously, but never in the Assembly.

The New York Law Journal reported May 24 that Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said it is the Democratic majority's position that the change should be made through collective bargaining and not legislative action.