A PATROL OFFICER’S FALLING INTO A HOLE DUG FOR A SEWER LINE WHILE INVESTIGATING, AT NIGHT, A SUSPICIOUS LIGHT FROM A VACANT HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION WAS NOT AN “ACCIDENT” WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE RETIREMENT AND SOCIAL SECURITY LAW (CT APP). ​

The Court of Appeals, affirming the Appellate Division, determined petitioner, a former police officer, was not injured in an “accident” within the meaning of the Retirement and Social Security Law. Therefore, petitioner was not entitled to accidental disability retirement (ADR) benefits. Petitioner, at night, was investigating a suspicious light in a vacant house which was under construction. Petitioner was aware the house was under construction. He was injured when he fell into a hole which had been dug for a sewer line:

As our caselaw makes clear, an incident caused by “a risk inherent in the petitioner’s regular [job] duties” is not an accident for purposes of ADR benefits … . In determining whether an accident occurred, respondent appropriately considered whether, at the time of the incident, petitioner was “acting within the scope of [his] ‘ordinary employment duties, considered in view of [his] particular employment,’ ” and whether the incident was caused by “an inherent risk of [those] regular duties” … . On this record, respondent “reasonabl[y] and plausibl[y]” determined that petitioner’s risk of being injured by an unseen hazard while investigating a potential crime in the dark was inherent in his ordinary job duties as a patrol officer … . Matter of Compagnone v DiNapoli, 2024 NY Slip Op 06235, CtApp 12-12-24

Practice Point: A patrol officer investigating, at night, a suspicious light from a vacant house under construction, could or should have anticipated injury from an unseen hazard at the construction site, here a hole dug for a sewer line. Falling into the hole was not a compensable “accident” within the meaning of the Retirement and Social Security Law.​