HB234 Alabama 2020 Session

Under existing law, a peace officer, a firefighter, a volunteer firefighter who is a member of an organized volunteer fire department registered with the Alabama Forestry Commission, or a rescue squad member who is injured or killed under certain conditions in the performance of his or her duties is eligible for disability or death benefits under certain conditions

This bill would include a wildland firefighter employed by the Alabama Forestry Commission within the definition of a firefighter who is eligible for death benefits paid by the state for being killed while engaged in the performance of his or her duties

This bill would create the Peace Officers' and Firefighters' Death Benefit Fund, would make a conditional appropriation to the fund, and would require that the benefits awarded on account of injury or death, under certain conditions, are paid from the fund

Relating to peace officers and firefighters; to amend Sections 36-30-1 and 36-30-6, Code of Alabama 1975, relating to the benefits awarded on account of injury or death, under certain conditions; to include a wildland firefighter employed by the Alabama Forestry Commission as a firefighter as eligible for death benefits; to create the Peace Officers' and Firefighters' Death Benefit Fund; to make a conditional appropriation to the fund; and to require the benefits awarded on account of certain injuries or death be paid from the fund.

Section 1

Sections 36-30-1 and 36-30-6, Code of Alabama 1975, are amended to read as follows:

§36-30-1.

(a) For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:

(1) AWARDING AUTHORITY. The State Board of Adjustment, created and existing pursuant to Article 4, Chapter 9 of Title 41.

(2) COMPENSATION. The money benefits paid on account of injury or death which occurred during the course of employment or activity as a peace officer or firefighter and is in the nature of workers' compensation.

(3) DEPENDENT CHILD. An unmarried child under the age of 18 years, or one over the age of 18 who is physically or mentally incapacitated from earning.

(4) DIRECT AND PROXIMATE RESULT OF A HEART ATTACK OR STROKE. Death resulting from a heart attack or stroke caused by engaging or participating in a situation while on duty involving nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical law enforcement, fire suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, emergency medical service, prison security, disaster relief, other emergency medical response activity, or participation in a training exercise which involved nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical activity; and the heart attack or stroke is suffered while still on that duty after so engaging or participating or not more than 24 hours after so engaging or participating.

(5) FIREFIGHTER or FIREFIGHTERS. A member or members of a paid or volunteer fire department of a city, town, county, or other subdivision of the state or of a public corporation organized for the purpose of providing water, water systems, fire protection services, or fire protection facilities in the state; and shall include the chief, assistant chief, wardens, engineers, captains, firefighters, and all other officers and employees of such departments who actually engage in fire fighting or in rendering first aid in case of drownings or asphyxiation at the scene of action. This term also includes a firefighter who is employed by the Alabama Forestry Commission and who has been certified by the State Forester as having met the wildland firefighter training standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.

(6) PEACE OFFICER. All sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables, municipal police officers, municipal policemen, state and town marshals, members of the highway patrol, state troopers, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Enforcement Division agents, enforcement officers of the Public Service Commission, revenue agents, and persons who are required by law to comply with the provisions of the Peace Officers' Minimum Standards, employees of the Board of Corrections, highway camp guards, law enforcement officers of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, all law enforcement officers of the Alabama Forestry Commission, livestock theft investigators of the Department of Agriculture and Industries, Capitol security guards, narcotic agents and inspectors of the State Board of Health, any other state, county, or municipal officer engaged in quelling a riot, or civil disturbance, and university police officers.

(7) RESCUE SQUAD MEMBER. A member of an organized rescue squad of a city, town, county, or other subdivision of the state or of a public corporation, organized for the purpose of providing, within the scope of his or her practice: First aid, treatment, or transport of the sick or injured; rescue or recovery operations at incidents of drowning; search and rescue of individuals lost or incapable of self rescue; or any other emergency or non-emergency incident where the services provided by the rescue squad are deemed necessary for incident stabilization. The term includes all commanders, officers, and members of organized rescue squads that are members of the Alabama Association of Rescue Squads.

(b) For the purposes of this chapter, the following described persons shall be conclusively presumed to be wholly dependent:

(1) Spouse, unless it be shown that the spouse was voluntarily living apart from the peace officer, firefighter, or rescue squad member at the time of death, or unless it be shown that the peace officer, firefighter, or rescue squad member was not in any way contributing to the spouse's support and had not in any way contributed to the spouse's support for more than 12 months next preceding the occurrence of the injury causing death.

(2) Minor children under the age of 18 years and those over 18 if physically and mentally incapacitated from earning.

(3) Spouse, child, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sister, brother, mother-in-law, and father-in-law who were wholly supported by a deceased peace officer, firefighter, or rescue squad member at the time of his or her death and for a reasonable period of time prior thereto shall be considered his or her dependents and payment of compensation may be made to them as hereinafter authorized.

(c) If a paid or volunteer firefighter, peace officer, certified police officer, reserve law enforcement officer, or rescue squad member is killed while engaged in the performance of his or her duties and there are no designated beneficiaries, then the compensation shall be paid to his or her dependents or partial dependents in the manner prescribed by Section 36-30-3, and if there are none, the compensation shall be paid to his or her non-dependent children, and if there are none, the compensation shall be paid to his or her parents, and if there are none, the compensation shall be paid to the estate of the deceased.

(d) Any member of the class named in subdivision (3) of subsection (b) who regularly derived part of his or her support from the earnings of the deceased peace officer, firefighter, or rescue squad member, as the case may be, at the time of his or her death and for a reasonable time immediately prior thereto shall be considered his or her partial dependent and payment of compensation may be made to such partial dependent as hereinafter authorized.

§36-30-6.

(a) The Board of Adjustment, when serving as the awarding authority under this article, shall hear and determine claims for compensation under this article in the same manner prescribed by law for the hearing and determination by such the board of other claims against the state.

If, when (b) When acting as the awarding authority, it if the board determines that an applicant for is entitled to compensation under this article is entitled thereto, it may adjudge and order that such the compensation shall be paid out of the appropriation made by Acts 1966, Ex. Sess., No. 208, p. 256 to the Board of Adjustment for the purposes of this article Peace Officers' and Firefighters' Death Benefit Fund, as established in Section 36-30-6.1, and, if the funds in such appropriation the fund have been exhausted, then out of any fund or funds appropriated to the Board of Adjustment for the purposes of Article 4, Chapter 9 of Title 41."

Section 2

Section 36-30-6.1 is added to the Code of Alabama 1975, to read as follows: §36-30-6.1. (a)(1) There is hereby established a Peace Officers' and Firefighters' Death Benefit Fund, into which there is automatically appropriated three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) annually at the beginning of each state fiscal year. (2) The state Comptroller shall transfer the monies from the General Fund to the fund annually within a period of one week following the commencement of each state fiscal year. (3) The fund may not exceed a total accumulated amount of one million dollars ($1,000,000). (b)(1) The monies in the fund may be expended only for the payment of compensation awards made by the Board of Adjustment in accordance with Section 36-30-6. (2) All monies appropriated under this section shall be conditional and subject to the approval of the Governor.

Section 3

This act shall become effective on the first day of the third month following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.