§ 607-b. Performance of duty disability retirement. a. Any member of
the New York city employees' retirement system who is employed by the
city of New York or by the New York city health and hospital corporation
in the position of emergency medical technician or advanced emergency
medical technician, as those terms are defined in section three thousand
one of the public health law, who, on or after March seventeenth,
nineteen hundred ninety-six, becomes physically or mentally
incapacitated for the performance of duties as the natural and proximate
result of an injury, sustained in the performance or discharge of his or
her duties shall be paid a performance of duty disability retirement
allowance equal to three-quarters of final average salary, subject to
section 13-176 of the administrative code of the city of New York. Any
member who has made application or who, after the effective date of the
chapter of the laws of two thousand four which amended this subdivision,
makes application for such performance of duty pension shall be entitled
to invoke the medical review procedure provided for in subdivision e of
section six hundred five of this article, subject to the terms and
conditions set forth in such subdivision.

b. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or of any general or
special law to the contrary, a member covered by this section who
contracts HIV (where the member may have been exposed to a bodily fluid
of a person under his or her care or treatment, or while the member
examined, transported or otherwise had contact with such person, in the
performance of his or her duties) tuberculosis or hepatitis, will be
presumed to have contracted such disease in the performance or discharge
of his or her duties, unless the contrary be proved by competent
evidence.

c. 1. (a) Notwithstanding any provisions of this chapter or of any
general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or
regulation to the contrary, if any condition or impairment of health is
caused by a qualifying World Trade Center condition as defined in
section two of this chapter, it shall be presumptive evidence that it
was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty and the natural
and proximate result of an accident not caused by such member's own
willful negligence, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.

(b) the head of each retirement system is hereby authorized to
promulgate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this
paragraph.

2. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter or of any
general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or
regulation to the contrary, if a member who participated in World Trade
Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations as defined in section two
of this chapter, and subsequently retired on a service retirement, an
ordinary disability retirement, a performance of duty disability
retirement, or was separated from service with a vested right to
deferred payability of a retirement allowance, and subsequent to such
retirement or separation is determined by the comptroller to have a
qualifying World Trade Center condition, as defined in section two of
this chapter, upon such determination by the head of the retirement
system, it shall be presumed that such disability was incurred in the
performance and discharge of duty as the natural and proximate result of
an accident not caused by such member's own willful negligence, and that
the member would have been physically or mentally incapacitated for the
performance and discharge of duty of the position from which he or she
retired had the condition been known and fully developed at the time of
the member's retirement, unless the contrary is proven by competent
evidence.

(b) The head of the retirement system shall consider a
reclassification of the member's retirement or vesting as an accidental
disability retirement effective as of the date of such reclassification.

(c) Such member's retirement option shall not be changed as a result
of such reclassification.

(d) The member's former employer at the time of the member's
retirement shall have an opportunity to be heard on the member's
application for reclassification by the NYCERS board of trustees
according to procedures developed by the NYCERS board of trustees.

(e) The head of each retirement system is hereby authorized to
promulgate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this
paragraph.

d. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or of any
general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or
regulation to the contrary, if a retiree or vestee who: (1) has met the
criteria of subdivision c of this section and retired on a service or
disability retirement, would have met the criteria if not already
retired on an accidental disability, or was separated from service with
a vested right to deferred payability of a retirement allowance; and (2)
has not been retired for more than twenty-five years; and (3) dies from
a qualifying World Trade Center condition, as defined in section two of
this chapter, as determined by the applicable head of the retirement
system or applicable medical board, then unless the contrary be proven
by competent evidence, such retiree or vestee shall be deemed to have
died as a natural and proximate result of an accident sustained in the
performance of duty and not as a result of willful negligence on his or
her part. Such retiree's or vestee's eligible beneficiary, as set forth
in section six hundred one of this article, shall be entitled to an
accidental death benefit as provided by section six hundred seven of
this article, however, for the purposes of determining the salary base
upon which the accidental death benefit is calculated, the retiree or
vestee shall be deemed to have died on the date of his or her retirement
or separation from service with vested rights. Upon the retiree's or
vestee's death, the eligible beneficiary shall make a written
application to the head of the retirement system within the time for
filing an application for an accidental death benefit as set forth in
section six hundred seven of this article requesting conversion of such
retiree's service, vested right or disability retirement benefit to an
accidental death benefit. At the time of such conversion, the eligible
beneficiary shall relinquish all rights to the prospective benefits
payable under the service or disability retirement benefit, or vested
right to such benefit, including any post-retirement death benefits,
since the retiree's or vestee's death. If the eligible beneficiary is
not the only beneficiary receiving or entitled to receive a benefit
under the service or disability retirement benefit (including, but not
limited to, post-retirement death benefits or benefits paid or payable
pursuant to the retiree's option selection), or that will be eligible
under the vested right, the accidental death benefit payments to the
eligible beneficiary will be reduced by any amounts paid or payable to
any other beneficiary.

e. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or of any
general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or
regulation to the contrary, if a member who: (1) has met the criteria of
subdivision c of this section; (2) dies in active service or after
separating from service with a vested right to deferred payability of a
retirement allowance, but prior to the payability of that retirement
allowance; and (3) dies from a qualifying World Trade Center condition,
as defined in section two of this chapter, as determined by the
applicable head of the retirement system or applicable medical board to
have been caused by such member's participation in the World Trade
Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations, as defined in section two
of this chapter, then unless the contrary be proven by competent
evidence, such member shall be deemed to have died as a natural and
proximate result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty and
not as a result of willful negligence on his or her part. Such member's
eligible beneficiary, as set forth in section six hundred one of this
article, shall be entitled to an accidental death benefit provided he or
she makes written application to the head of the retirement system
within the time for filing an application for an accidental death
benefit as set forth in section six hundred seven of this article.