(1) (a) Any old hire member of a paid fire department in a municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district, having less than one hundred thousand in population who becomes mentally or physically disabled while on active duty during regular assigned hours of duty from any cause not self-inflicted nor due to the habitual use of intoxicants or drugs to an extent whereby the member is unable to perform the member's duties shall be retired by the board. Any old hire member of said fire department who has completed five or more years as a member of said department but who is unable to perform the member's duties by reason of heart disease or any disease of the lungs or respiratory tract shall submit competent evidence substantiating the member's claim that the member has contracted said disease while on duty as a result of strain or the inhalation of noxious fumes, poison, or gases and shall be retired by the board.
In cases where a special position or assignment can or may be assigned to such oldhire member, the member may be assigned to such special position or assignment. Any such retirement shall be for the period of the disability and no longer and shall be governed by the provisions of paragraphs (c) to (e) of this subsection (1).
Effective July 1, 1969, said old hire member shall be paid a monthly pension equal toone-half the amount of the member's monthly salary as of the date of the member's retirement plus, if the governing body of the municipality, the board of directors of the fire protection district, or the board of the county improvement district authorizes such additional benefits, onehalf of any increase in salary and longevity or additional pay based on length of service granted during the period of the member's retirement to the rank occupied by the member in said department. Said pension shall continue to be paid as long as the member is in retirement.
All applicants for disability pensions shall be examined by one or more physiciansselected by the board and may be examined by one or more physicians selected by the applicant. All expenses of examination by the physician chosen by the board shall be paid by the board out of the old hire pension fund.
The board shall establish such rules as it deems proper for the purpose of reexamination of all old hire members who are retired for disability to determine from time to time the fitness of such members to return to active duty in said department. No such member who has reached the age of fifty years, either before or after the member's retirement, shall be reexamined. No such member who has completed twenty years of active duty before the date of such retirement shall be reexamined. No member on the retired list shall be examined sooner than one year after date of retirement and not more often than once a year thereafter. In the event it is found by said board that any member on the retired list has recovered from the disability that caused the member's retirement, such member, if the member is under fifty years of age and has served less than twenty years of active duty, shall be removed from the retired list and ordered to report to the chief officer of said fire department within thirty days for assignment to active duty. During said period of thirty days, such member may file a written protest in which the member shall state any objection to the member's removal from the retired list. The decision of said board shall be suspended pending a hearing on said protest, at which hearing such member shall have the right to appear and to be represented by counsel. During the period that any member is retired for disability by said board, such member, if under the age of fifty years and having served less than twenty years of active duty, shall be carried on a special roll of the fire department and listed as inactive.
(I) Except as provided in subparagraph (II) of this paragraph (f), if an old hire member of the fire department becomes mentally or physically disabled while not on active duty during regularly assigned hours of duty and from any cause not self-inflicted or due to the habitual use of intoxicants or drugs to an extent whereby the member is unable to perform the member's regular fire department duties, the member shall be paid by the board, starting twelve months from such disability and for the remaining period of such disability, a monthly benefit equal to five percent of the amount set forth in paragraph (c) of this subsection (1), multiplied by the number of years the member has been in active service with said fire department; but any such benefit under this subsection (1) shall not exceed one-half of the member's monthly salary as of the date of the member's disability. The provisions covering examinations, and reexamination as set forth in paragraph (e) of this subsection (1), shall be applicable to all cases arising under this paragraph (f).
(II) Any person who became an old hire member of a fire department prior to July 1, 1971, shall be entitled to the benefits set forth in subparagraph (I) of this paragraph (f) as of the date of the onset of such disability and shall not be subject to the twelve-month delay provision.
If any old hire member of a fire department in a municipality, fire protection district,or county improvement district having a population of less than one hundred thousand dies from any cause, whether on duty or not or while on the retired list, leaving a surviving spouse or dependent parent, such surviving spouse or dependent parent shall be awarded a monthly annuity equal to one-third of the monthly salary of a first-grade firefighter at the time of the member's death or retirement so long as the surviving spouse or dependent parent remains unmarried. No dissolution of a subsequent marriage shall have the effect of reinstating said surviving spouse on the pension roll or authorizing the granting of a pension. No pension shall be paid to the dependent parent of a deceased old hire member who leaves a surviving spouse or dependent children.
In addition to the annuity set forth in subsection (2) of this section, the board shallalso order the payment to such surviving spouse or the legally appointed guardian of each dependent child of such deceased old hire member of said fire department of a monthly annuity of thirty dollars for each child, to continue until such child reaches the age of eighteen years. If such surviving spouse dies or there is no surviving spouse, as limited and described in subsection (2) of this section, but there are surviving children under eighteen years of age, the board shall order a monthly payment equal to the full payment to which a firefighter's surviving spouse is entitled under subsection (2) of this section to be divided equally among the children or a monthly payment of thirty dollars for each child, whichever total amount is greater, to the guardian for said children. In no event shall such surviving children of a deceased or retired firefighter receive an amount in excess of one-half of the current salary paid to a firefighter, first grade, of said department. No annuity shall be paid to the dependent parent of a deceased member who leaves a child or children under eighteen years of age.
When any active or retired old hire member dies, the board shall appropriate from theold hire pension fund the sum of one hundred dollars, as a death benefit, to be paid to the surviving spouse or family of the deceased, but, if there is no surviving spouse or family, said sum shall be paid to such other person as the board of said fund designates.
Source: L. 96: Entire article added with relocations, p. 884, § 1, effective May 23.
Editor's note: Provisions of this section were formerly numbered as §§ 31-30-407 (1) to (3) and 31-30-409.