126 N.Y.S. 766 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1910
The petitioner was appointed under civil service regulations as a, pilot for one of the fireboats of'the city of New York in' 1887, and has served continuously as such pilot up to" the present year, when he made an application to be retired upon a pension. His .application was duly acted upon and he was retired from the service with an annual pension of $500. This is one-third of his annual salary as pilot, and the petitioner moved the court to compel the commissioner of the tire department to place him upon the pension roll at $750 a year, or one-half his regular salary. If the petitioner lias, in fact,, served twenty years or more as a member of the uniformed fire department, it is not' questioned that he would be entitled to one-half of his regular salary. There is no dispute that he has acted as pilot, running one of the fireboats, for more than twenty years, but the respondent claims, and properly, we believe, that the petitioner has been a member of the uniformed fire force only from the year 1907, and his retirement being upon the ground of physical disability, not brought about by reason of anything happening during the time of his service, the pension is properly fixed at $500 per year.
When the petitioner was appointed in 1887, section 442 of the Consolidation Act (Laws of -1882, chap. 410) was in force. This section provided that “ The salary attached to either of the following positions in the fire department shall not exceed the sum here designated as the maximum, salary of such' position when held by any person appointed to the uniform force of said fire department after May twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty: Eor chief of battalion, two thousand dollars; for a foreman, fourteen hundred dollars; for an assistant foreman, thirteen hundred dollars; for an engineer of steamers, twelve, hundred dollars; for an assistant engineer of steamers, eleven hundred dollars. The members of the uniform force, appointed after May twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty, shall, on their appointment, become members of what shall be known as the third grade, at a salary of eight hundred dollars per year; after two years of service in such third grade, they shall, if their conduct and efficiency have been satisfactory, be advanced to what shall be known as the second grade, at a salary of nine hundred dollars per year; after two years’
It -is doubtless true, as suggested by the learned counsel for the pétitioner, that Mr. Roche occupied a position analogous to that of a driver of a-fire engine, but the difficulty with his case is that he was never made a member of the uniformed force. If he had entered the department as a third grade fireman, and had been assigned to duty as a pilot of the fireboat at a salary fixed for firemen of that grade, and had been from time to time promoted to the various grades provided by law, he would be entitled to the relief
The order appealed from shoyld be affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.
Hirschberg, P. J., Jenks, Thomas and Carr, JJ., concurred.
Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.