§3322. Pensions and benefits

A. The following members of the Lake Charles Fire Department shall be eligible to participate in the benefits of this fund, provided they were under thirty-one years of age at the time of hiring as provided elsewhere in this Part:

(1) Members who shall have completed at least six full months of service in said fire department on September 1, 1968 shall be eligible for participation herein immediately upon the effective date of this amendment.

(2) Members who shall not have completed six full months of service in said fire department on September 1, 1968, and members who are hired subsequent to September, 1968 shall be eligible for participation herein only after having completed three full years of service in said fire department.

B. Pensions and benefits payable out of said fund shall be as follows:

(1)(a) If a member of the fire department acquires a disability for service therein for causes not arising or developing directly from his employment in the said fire department, or his employment elsewhere other than the fire department, and for which he is therefore unable to collect compensation under the Worker's Compensation Laws of Louisiana, said fireman shall, upon being found by the board of directors to have such disability, be paid monthly so long as such disability shall continue.

(b) The following scale of disability benefits shall apply, provided the fireman was under thirty-one years of age at the time of hiring as provided elsewhere in this Part, and provided further that the monthly paying shall never exceed three hundred dollars:

(i) A sum equal to forty per centum of the salary earned by said employee at the time such disability arises in the case of employees who have served the minimum period for eligibility and up to and including ten years.

(ii) Employees who have served for a period of eleven years shall receive forty-one per centum.

(iii) Employees who have served for a period of twelve years shall receive forty-two per centum.

(iv) Employees who have served for a period of thirteen years shall receive forty-three per centum.

(v) Employees who have served for a period of fourteen years shall receive forty-four per centum.

(vi) Employees who have served for a period of fifteen years shall receive forty-five per centum.

(vii) Employees who have served for a period of sixteen years shall receive forty-six per centum.

(viii) Employees who have served for a period of seventeen years shall receive forty-seven per centum.

(ix) Employees who have served for a period of eighteen years shall receive forty-eight per centum.

(x) Employees who have served for a period of nineteen years shall receive forty-nine per centum.

(xi) Employees who have served for a period of twenty years shall receive fifty per centum.

(c) Provided that if any member was drawing a military disability check for injury or ailment received while serving in the Armed Forces or other service of the United States before entering the service of the fire department, and he is forced to retire because of said injury or ailment, any compensation that he receives because of said injury or ailment shall be deducted from the amount due him under the above scale, if it be greater; and he shall receive from the Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund only the difference between the two. In the event he is later able to fulfill twenty years of service consistently with other provisions of this Part, he shall retire under the regular retirement provisions herein.

(2)(a) If payment of worker's compensation checks by the City's insurer to a fireman hurt on the job is discontinued, but the fireman is still not acceptable for work in the fire department because of said disability, then he shall be paid disability checks from the Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund based on his years of service according to the following scale for service disability benefits; provided that the monthly payment shall never exceed four hundred dollars; and provided further that said disability payments shall be computed by taking the appropriate percentage according to the years of service, of the monthly salary of the active member of said fire department holding to position corresponding to that held by the beneficiary at the time of his disability retirement, regardless of the salary being paid to the beneficiary at the time of his retirement:

(i) A sum equal to fifty per centum of the salary earned by said employee at the time such disability arises in the case of employees who have served the minimum period for eligibility and up to and including ten years.

(ii) Employees who have served for a period of eleven years shall receive fifty-one per centum.

(iii) Employees who have served for a period of twelve years shall receive fifty-two per centum.

(iv) Employees who have served for a period of thirteen years shall receive fifty-three per centum.

(v) Employees who have served for a period of fourteen years shall receive fifty-four per centum.

(vi) Employees who have served for a period of fifteen years shall receive fifty-five per centum.

(vii) Employees who have served for a period of sixteen years shall receive fifty-six per centum.

(viii) Employees who have served for a period of seventeen years shall receive fifty-seven per centum.

(ix) Employees who have served for a period of eighteen years shall receive fifty-eight per centum.

(x) Employees who have served for a period of nineteen years shall receive fifty-nine per centum.

(xi) Employees who have served for a period of twenty years shall receive sixty per centum.

(b) After any member of the fire department shall have been retired upon pension by reason of disability, the said board of directors shall cause the retired member to be examined annually by a competent physician to be selected by it annually, and also to examine other witnesses for the purpose of discovering whether such disability to perform the duties of the position held at the time of his removal from active service yet continues, and whether such retired member should be continued on pension roll; but such retired member shall remain on the pension roll until final action in the matter. Such retired member shall be entitled to notice and to be present at the hearing of any such evidence, shall be entitled to counsel, shall be permitted to propound any questions pertinent to such matters, and shall also have the right to introduce upon his own behalf any competent evidence he may see fit. All witnesses so produced shall be examined under oath and any member of said board of directors is hereby authorized to administer such oath. The decision of said board of directors shall be final and no appeal shall be allowed therefrom, nor shall the same be subject to review, except by said board of directors, or the Courts.

(c) Any fireman who is receiving benefits for disability shall not be considered as serving time in the fire department for computation of eligibility for retirement as provided below.

(3)(a) Any member of the fire department, regardless of when hired, provided he was under thirty-one years of age at the time of hiring, who serves in the fire department for a period of twenty years, shall, upon making proper written application to the board of directors requesting retirement from service in the fire department, be paid a monthly sum equal to fifty per centum of his average monthly salary for the twenty-four consecutive month period during which his average monthly salary was highest as hereinafter provided, such sum not to exceed five hundred dollars per month. The five hundred dollars per month maximum applies only to those who have served less than twenty-one years with the Lake Charles Fire Department. The benefits provided herein also provide with respect only to persons who retire on and after October 1, 1976.

(b) If the fireman eligible for retirement, is physically fit and able to continue to render efficient service, he may, at his option, continue on active service and in such event, upon retirement shall be entitled to receive a pension as set forth below. All firemen, upon reaching their sixty-fifth birthday, shall be required to take a physical examination subject to the approval of the appointing authority to continue to render efficient service in the fire department and upon reaching their sixty-sixth birthday shall be compelled to retire from the fire department.

(c) The following scale of retirement benefits, not subject to any maximum, shall apply for each employee who has served twenty-one years or more in the Lake Charles Fire Department who retires on or after October 1, 1976:

(i) Employees who have served for twenty-one years shall receive fifty-one and one-half per centum.

(ii) Employees who have served for twenty-two years shall receive fifty-three per centum.

(iii) Employees who have served for twenty-three years shall receive fifty-four and one-half per centum.

(iv) Employees who have served for twenty-four years shall receive fifty-six per centum.

(v) Employees who have served for twenty-five years shall receive fifty-nine per centum.

(vi) Employees who have served for twenty-six years shall receive sixty-two per centum.

(vii) Employees who have served for twenty-seven years shall receive sixty-five per centum.

(viii) Employees who have served for twenty-eight years shall receive sixty-eight per centum.

(ix) Employees who have served for twenty-nine years shall receive seventy-one per centum.

(x) Employees who have served for thirty years or more shall receive seventy-five per centum.

(d) Retirement benefits as provided above shall be computed by applying the average monthly salary of the employee for the twenty-four consecutive month period during which his average monthly salary was highest to the applicable percentage provided above according to years of service, but any member of the Lake Charles Fire Department who has completed at least twenty years service in the Lake Charles Fire Department, and who retires on or after October 1, 1976, shall receive pension benefits of not less than two hundred fifty dollars per month.

C.(1) If any member of said fire department, while in service of said Department or while eligible for or receiving benefits under the provisions of this Part, shall die from any cause and leave a widow and minor children under the age of eighteen years, they shall collect from said fund the benefits to which said deceased member would have been entitled, unless said widow remarries, in which event payments to her shall cease and the minor children shall collect one-half the benefits to which deceased member would have been entitled, until they arrive at the age of eighteen years. No widow shall be entitled to the benefits under this Part unless she was married to said member of the fire department before he was removed from active service and was living with him at the time of his death.

(2) If the deceased member of the fire department should leave a surviving widow and no children under the age of eighteen years, she shall receive only one-half of the benefits to which he would have been entitled, provided that in no event will the sum to which she is entitled be less than two hundred dollars per month.

(3) If the deceased member of the fire department was not married but left a father and/or mother directly dependent upon him for support and maintenance, the board of directors shall pay to such father and/or mother one-half the pension to which the deceased member would have been entitled. The board at its discretion shall determine whether or not the father and/or mother was directly dependent.

(4) Whenever an active member of said fire department, or retired or disabled member on pension, shall die as aforesaid, the board of directors shall appropriate from the said fund the sum of five hundred dollars for funeral and burial expenses of such deceased member.

(5) The benefits provided in this Part for minor children under the age of eighteen years shall be paid to the surviving parent or tutor unless otherwise directed by said board.

D.(1) Any fireman who is over thirty-one years of age at the time of hiring is not eligible for either disability or retirement benefits under the provisions of this Part, unless said fireman was originally employed in the Lake Charles Fire Department before he was thirty-one and was an active paying member of Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund at the time of resignation from said fire department and has properly been reinstated in said fire department prior to reaching his thirty-fifth birthday, in which case he shall be eligible to come under the provisions on the Pension Plan, provided that he remits to the Pension Fund all back payments from time of reinstatement to September 1, 1968 in order to receive credit for that time toward his pension.

(2) The provisions of this Subsection shall apply only to those members of the Lake Charles Fire Department who retire from said Department after September 1, 1968; no provision of this Subsection shall operate to alter the benefits payable to any person or persons who may be receiving retirement or disability benefits on September 1, 1968 under the provisions of previous amendments of the Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund for the City of Lake Charles, with the exceptions as hereinafter set out.

(3) The following provisions shall apply only to those members and their widows who are receiving benefits from the Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund for the City of Lake Charles on September 1, 1968:

(a) All members who are receiving from the Pension Fund the maximum benefit of two hundred twenty-five dollars per month for twenty years service shall on September 1, 1968, begin to receive two hundred fifty dollars per month, and thereafter shall receive an additional increase of two percent per annum for each succeeding year not to exceed five years, and not to exceed a maximum of two hundred seventy-five dollars per month.

(b) All widows of members, which widows have no children under eighteen years and are receiving from the Pension Fund the maximum benefit, shall on September 1, 1968 begin to receive not less than two hundred dollars per month.

Designated from Acts 1944, No. 186, §13 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991; Acts 2014, No. 811, §4, eff. June 23, 2014.

NOTE: Acts 2014, No. 811 changed terminology referring to persons with disabilities throughout the La. Revised Statutes and codes of law, and included a listing of terms that were deleted and their respective successor terms (See Acts 2014, No. 811, §36). The Act provides that it is not the intent of the legislature that changes in terminology effected therein alter or affect in any way the substance, interpretation, or application of any law or administrative rule; further provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to expand or diminish any right of or benefit for any person provided by any law or administrative rule (See Acts 2014, No. 811, §35(C) and (D)).