Gone But Not Forgotten – Hometown
Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 by James K. MacAlister
Any Maryland Workers’ Compensa-
tion practitioner “worth his [or her] salt,” knows that public safety employees - firefighters/instructors, rescue squad members, advanced life support unit members, and police officers – killed or disabled by “heart disease, hypertension or lung disease,” are statutorily “pre- sumed to have to have an occupational disease suffered in the line of duty.” Md. Lab. & Empl. Art. § 9-503 (presumption can also apply to cancer). What the claimants’ bar may not
know is that recent adoption of the Federal Hometown Heroes Survivors Act of 2003 creates a similar presump- tion in death claims under the Federal Public Safely Officer’s Benefits (PSOB), a program that provides a one-time cash payment to survivors of first responders who perish in the line of duty. This ar- ticle offers a nutshell sketch of how the newly-adopted presumption creates a valuable remedy for those who survive a “hometown hero” felled in the line of duty by a heart attack or stroke.
What is the PSOB? Created in 1976, the PSOB offers a “one-
time financial payment to the eligible survivors of federal, state, and local public safety offers for all line of duty deaths.” U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, www.leahy.
senate.gov/press/2003/200302d.html. The amount of the payment currently exceeds $250,000. 42 U.S.C. §3796(a). Not discussed here, but worthy of note, is that the PSOB also offers permanent/ total disability benefits, and “financial assistance to help pay higher education costs for spouses and children of public safety officers for whom PSOB death or disability benefits have been paid.” At- torney General’s Guide to the Hometown Heroes and Survivors’ Benefits Act.
Fall 2008 Who Administers It?
The “Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is the agency responsible for administering the PSOB program.” Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program “Hometown Heroes” Fact Sheet, U.S. Department of Justice. This Board is a sub-division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Regulations, forms and a very helpful “Attorney Gen- eral’s Guide to the Hometown Heroes Survivors’ Benefits Act” can be obtained at the BJA’s web site.
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ BJA/psob/
psob_herores.hmtl.
What is Covered? With the adoption of the Hometown
Heroes Survivors’ Benefits Act of 2003 the PSOB law was amended to create a presumption that extends benefits
to public safety workers who die from heart attacks or strokes, under certain specified conditions: 1. Public Safety Officer – An “indi-
vidual serving a public agency in an official capacity, with or without com- pensation, as law enforcement officer, as a firefighter, as a chaplain, or as a member of rescue squad or ambulance crew.” 42 USC §3796b(9). Under certain circumstances, this definition included employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and state, local, or tribal entities engaged in disaster relief. Id. Note an “independent contractor is not an “employee” entitled to benefits.” 28 CFR §32.3. 2. Death – the “hometown” hero can-
not survive the heart attack or stroke, since, by its terms, the Act extends benefits only “if a public safety officer dies.”
Welcome
New and Returning MTLA Members July 2008 - October 2008
Alexander Cordier Joseph M. Creed Gregory Emrick Nathan I. Finkelstein Mary Ellen Flynn Kimberly Glencer Marc Hassan Margaret H. Hugh Bernard Ilkhanoff Joyce Lombardi F. Scott Lucas
Dianna M. Morris Samuel Rensin John Saunders Richard Oare Carmel J. Snow Dory Sutker Jennifer M. Walsh Hare Samonna L. Watts Lynette Whitfield Robert N.Wood,III
Trial Reporter
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