50-1516. RETIREMENT FOR DISABILITY — DEATH BENEFITS — FUNERAL BENEFITS. No person shall be retired as provided in the above sections unless the member shall comply with the qualifications set out and provided by this chapter:

(a) Any paid police member incapacitated by injury or by illness as a result of the performance of the member’s official duties as a paid member of a police department shall be retired so long as the disability shall continue in a degree which prevents efficient service and during the disability shall be paid from the retirement fund a disability benefit as follows:

(1) For disability attributable wholly to service as a paid police member, a monthly sum equal to one twenty-fourth (1/24) of the amount of the annual salary attached to the rank which the member held in the police department for a period of one (1) year next preceding the date of retirement; provided, however, that the benefits may be reduced by the board of police retirement fund commissioners commensurate to the extent of the disability and the person’s income earning capacity;

(2) For disability attributable only in part to service as a paid police member, a monthly disability benefit in an amount to be fixed by the board of police retirement fund commissioners, but commensurate with the extent of proportion the service-connected disability relates to that person’s preexisting injury or infirmity, the board may increase or decrease such monthly benefits whenever the impairment in the person’s earning capacity warrants an increase or decrease, but in no event shall a monthly benefit paid to the person exceed the benefit provided under subparagraph (1) above;

(3) Provided, however, that if any paid police member is entitled to receive compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Law of the state of Idaho as it now exists, or shall hereafter be amended, the amount payable under this act shall be reduced by the amount to which the paid police member is entitled under the Workmen’s Compensation Law;

(4) The board of police retirement fund commissioners shall require medical examinations of all applicants for retirement by reason of disability, and shall, at their discretion, require periodic medical examinations of persons receiving a disability retirement allowance. The board shall prescribe general rules for medical examination required hereunder, and may provide for the discontinuance of any disability retirement allowance and forfeiture of all rights under this act for any person who refuses to submit to such an examination;

(5) The decision of the board as to eligibility allowances or benefits shall be final;

(6) When a disability beneficiary is determined by the board to be not incapacitated in a degree which prevents efficient service, the member’s disability retirement allowance shall be canceled forthwith;

(7) Such a person, who for any reason is not reinstated in the service of the member’s department, shall receive separation benefits according to the member’s entitlement, as provided under section 50-1515, Idaho Code.

(b) In event a paid police member is killed or sustains injury, from which death results, while in the performance of the member’s duty or from causes disconnected with the member’s official duties but during the period of the member’s service, and leaves surviving the member a spouse or a minor child or minor children, or, in the event the member’s spouse has predeceased the member, the member’s minor child or children, shall be paid from the retirement fund a yearly sum equal to one-half (1/2) of the amount of the salary attached to the rank the member held in the police department of the city for a period of one (1) year next preceding the date of injury or death. In event a surviving spouse of a police member so killed, or whose death so results, shall thereafter die and there shall be at the time of death, a minor child or minor children of the deceased police member under the age of eighteen (18) years, the payments aforesaid shall be paid, for the sole benefit of the minor child or children under and until reaching the age of eighteen (18) years; provided, however, that any sums payable to any surviving spouse or minor child or children of any police member under this act shall be reduced by any sum to which the surviving spouse or minor child or children may be entitled under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law of the state of Idaho.

(c) In event a paid police member, retired on retirement pay, shall die and leave surviving the member a surviving spouse, who was the member’s spouse for over five (5) years immediately prior to the member’s death, but no minor children, the spouse shall receive an amount equal to three-fourths (3/4) of the retirement or benefit pay of the member prior to the member’s death, adjusted in proportion to any cost-of-living adjustments made to the salaries of active employees, but only during the spouse’s lifetime.

(d) In event a paid police member, retired on retirement pay, shall die and leave surviving the member a spouse who was the member’s spouse for over five (5) years immediately prior to the member’s death or a minor child or minor children, the surviving spouse, or, in the event the member’s spouse has predeceased the member, the member’s minor child or children, shall be paid the retirement pay to which the deceased police member was eligible, and if the member’s surviving spouse thereafter dies the full retirement pay shall be paid to the child or children until they reach the age of eighteen (18) years.

(e) In the event any paid police member shall die within three (3) months, from and as a result of injuries received in performance of duty or from causes disconnected with the member’s official duties but during the period of the member’s service and shall at the time of the member’s death be unmarried but shall leave surviving the member a dependent father or mother, the retirement or benefit pay to which the member would have been entitled thereunder shall be paid fifty per cent (50%) to each of the surviving parents during the continuance of his or her natural life.

(f) In addition to the foregoing, at the death of any paid police member from whatever cause, the fund shall pay the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) as funeral expenses.

(g) Any police member, father, mother, surviving spouse, child or children of a police member entitled to compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Law shall draw benefits under provisions of this chapter only to the extent that the benefits under this chapter exceed those to which the member shall be entitled under the Workmen’s Compensation Law of the state of Idaho.

(h) When a police member has been disabled and when the period of the member’s disability combined with the member’s prior service as a police member makes the member eligible for retirement under the provisions of this chapter, the member may upon application to the board be retired at one-half (1/2) the rate of pay applicable for the job classification at the time of disability, or its equivalent, which the member held at the time of disability which pay shall be adjusted in proportion to any cost-of-living adjustments made to the pay of active employees.

History:

[50-1516, added 1967, ch. 429, sec. 268, p. 1249; am. 1970, ch. 157, sec. 2, p. 481; am. 1976, ch. 287, sec. 1, p. 990; am. 1981, ch. 4, sec. 2, p. 10; am. 1992, ch. 41, sec. 1, p. 140.]