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RI supreme court orders city to reconsider EMT-firefighter’s disability pension

Michael Morse filed a petition for the pension in 2012, but was denied by the board

Michael Morse is a longtime EMS1 columnist.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled Monday that the city of Providence must reconsider a previously denied EMT-firefighter’s request for a tax-free disability pension.

The Providence Retirement Board denied a petition for an accidental disability pension filed by Michael Morse in 2012; he suffered an injury while lifting a patient.

“The case is remanded to the retirement board with directions to reconsider the application in conformity with this opinion,” the court wrote.

The board unanimously denied Morse the pension in 2013, citing a “unanimity” policy that required three doctors to state that he was disabled. Only two doctors found that Morse could no longer work; the third determined he should not qualify for a disability pension, reported WPRI.

Morse claimed that the board had no right to adopt the policy, considering it was not stated in the city ordinance that explains how a city employee can obtain such a pension.

The court agreed with Morse’s argument.

The court stated that, “the board’s adoption of the unanimity rule effectively abandoned its authority to a single disagreeing person,” and that the City Council “could not possibly have intended the retirement board’s proceedings to be curtailed by the opinion on one physician.”

Morse was hired in 1991 and remains on city payroll since his 2012 injury, and is considered injured on duty.