80 A.D.2d 813 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1981
Judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County, entered August 1, 1980, denying petitioner’s application to review a determination of the Board of Trustees of the Police Pension Fund denying his application for accidental (line of duty) disability retirement and retiring him for ordinary disability, affirmed, without costs. Petitioner, a Marine veteran, received a shrapnel wound in his upper left arm in 1967 while serving in Vietnam. In 1968 he was appointed a police officer after making full disclosure of his injury and after a complete medical examination. From 1968 to October 3, 1978 he served creditably on active police duty, achieving the rank of detective. On October 3, 1978, while assisting a person in the throes of an epileptic seizure, he suffered injury to his neck, shoulder and left arm. He remained on sick leave until December 26, 1978, returning to limited duty on December 27. On March 5, 1979, petitioner applied for line of duty disability, contending that the injury suffered by him on October 3, 1978 had caused him to become disabled. Thereafter, the police commissioner requested that the petitioner be retired for ordinary disability. Petitioner was treated initially at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and thereafter the Medical Board of the Police Pension Fund had him examined by various physicians. Dr. Selznick, an honorary police surgeon, in his final report indicated a “temporary partial disability causally related to the accident” (emphasis supplied). Dr. Ransohoff reported that “His EMG’s which serve as a good baseline for further evaluation, show mild radiculopathy of the radial nerve but these probably were present before the injury” (emphasis supplied). Not even Dr. D’Angelo, the petitioner’s treating physician, would causally relate petitioner’s condition to the injury suffered on October 3, 1978. Based on these examinations, the medical board concluded that its findings did not support the claim of disability related to a line of duty injury. It recommended that petitioner be retired for ordinary disability. The board of trustees adopted that recommendation. While the evidence before the board may have been conflicting in some respects, it was for the trustees to resolve that conflict (Matter of Manza v Malcolm, 44 AD2d 794). Since the result reached by them was bottomed on substantial evidence, we may not interfere. Concur — Kupferman, J. P., Sandler, Bloom and Fein, JJ.