An appeals court slammed the NYPD’s decision to deny a tax-free pension to a career police surgeon who suffers from heart disease as both lacking “credible medical evidence” and “arbitrary and capricious.”
Dr. Lea C. Dann, 63, sued in 2011 after police brass rejected a medical board’s recommendation that the surgeon, who had an almost 30-year career on the force, receive the benefits because her disabling heart condition was a result of her job.
The court panned the NYPD’s argument that “the Legislature intended additional benefits only for those policemen whose particular occupational hazards and stresses made them more susceptible to heart disease,” according to the anonymous ruling released Thursday.
Dann, of Nassau County, worked 14-hour weekday shifts and 24-hour weekday tours during before she retired in May 2011.
“She was very happy that she prevailed,” said attorney Nicholas Cifuni, of the firm Ungaro & Cifuni.
Roy Richter, president of the NYPD’s Captains Endowment Association, joined Dann in the suit, fearing that the city was trying to shift a long-standing policy by cutting surgeons out of accidental disability retirement benefits.
The city’s Law Department said it is reviewing the decision.
A police spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.