17 Mass. App. Ct. 1018 | Mass. App. Ct. | 1984
The plaintiff, a permanently incapacitated former employee of the town of North Reading, has appealed from a judgment of the Superior Court which affirmed a decision of the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board (CRAB) which denied the plaintiff any benefits under G. L. c. 32, § 7(1). 1. The plaintiff’s contention that the “personal injury sustained or . . . hazard undergone” need be only a contributing cause of the permanent incapacity rests on a misreading of G. L. c. 32, § 7(1), and, in particular, of the words “as a result of” which appear in that subsection. The words last quoted modify only the ensuing words “the performance of. . . duties.” The operative words of causality are “by reason of,” and the question presented to CRAB was “whether a causal connection exist[ed] between ‘[a] hazard undergone . . . while in the performance of . . . duties (G. L. c. 32, § 7[1]) and the permanent incapacity.’ ” Wakefield Contributory Retirement Bd. v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 352 Mass. 499, 502 (1967). 2. There was no error in CRAB’s requiring the plaintiff to satisfy it that the “personal injury sustained or . . . hazard undergone” be a natural and proximate cause of the incapacity. Although the cognate words “natural and proximate result” do not appear in G. L. c. 32, § 7(1)
Judgment affirmed.