HB435INTRODUCED
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HB435
9XKUMPM-1
By Representatives Oliver, Sorrells, Brown, Smith, Wood (D),
Rehm, Whorton, Wadsworth, Stringer, Woods, Kirkland, Colvin,
Stadthagen, Ellis, Estes, Brinyark, Shaw
RFD: Ways and Means General Fund
First Read: 09-Apr-24
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7 9XKUMPM-1 04/09/2024 INT (L)INT 2024-1183
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First Read: 09-Apr-24
SYNOPSIS:
Under existing law, when a first responder,
including a law enforcement officer, firefighter,
rescue squad member, or emergency medical services
personnel, is killed in the line of duty, his or her
beneficiaries are eligible to receive certain state
death benefits.
Under existing law, the beneficiaries of a
coroner, deputy coroner, medicolegal death
investigator, or medical examiner are not eligible to
receive the state death benefits.
This bill would provide the state death benefits
to those beneficiaries in the same manner as the
beneficiaries of deceased first responders who die in
the performance of official duties.
A BILL
TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
Relating to public officers and employees; to amend
Sections 36-30-1 and 36-30-2, Code of Alabama 1975, to provide
certain state death benefits to the beneficiaries of coroners,
deputy coroners, medicolegal death investigators, and medical
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deputy coroners, medicolegal death investigators, and medical
examiners who die in the performance of official duties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1. Sections 36-30-1 and 36-30-2, 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 that occurred during the course of employment
or activity as a peace officer or, firefighter, or other first
responder and is in the nature of workers' compensation.
(3) COVID-19. Coronavirus disease 2019, for which the
Governor declared a public health emergency on March 13, 2020,
or any mutation or variant thereof that is declared a public
health emergency under the Emergency Management Act.
(4) DEPENDENT CHILD. An unmarried child under the age
of 1819 years, or one over the age of 1819 who is physically
or mentally incapacitated from earning.
(5) 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,
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relief, other emergency medical response activity,
investigation of death, or participation in a training
exercise that 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.
(6) EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES PERSONNEL (EMSP).
Emergency medical services personnel, as defined under Section
22-18-1, that are employed by the state or a county or
municipality thereof.
(7) 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. The 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.
(8) FIRST RESPONDER. The term includes firefighters,
peace officers, rescue squad members, and emergency medical
services personnel , coroners, deputy coroners, medicolegal
death investigators, and medical examiners .
(9) PEACE OFFICER. All sheriffs, deputy sheriffs,
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(9) PEACE OFFICER. All sheriffs, deputy sheriffs,
constables, municipal police officers, 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.
(10) 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
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(b) For the purposes of this chapter, the following
described individuals shall be conclusively presumed to be
wholly dependent:
(1) Spouse, unless it be shown that the spouse was
voluntarily living apart from the first responder at the time
of death, or unless it be shown that the first responder 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 19 years and those
19 years or more 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 first responder 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 first responder dies in a manner described in
Section 36-30-2 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.
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of the deceased.
(d) Any member of the class named in subdivision (b)(3)
who regularly derived part of his or her support from the
earnings of the deceased first responder, 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
the partial dependent as hereinafter authorized."
"§36-30-2
(a)(1)a. In the event a first responder is killed,
either accidentally or deliberately; or dies as a result of
injuries received while engaged in the performance of his or
her duties; or dies as a direct and proximate result of a
heart attack or stroke; or within 14 calendar days after being
required to report to his or her usual place of employment, he
or she contracts COVID-19 between March 13, 2020, and December
31, 2022, as confirmed by a positive test or diagnosis by a
licensed medical professional, and dies as a result of
COVID-19 or complications therefrom, his or her beneficiaries
or dependents shall be entitled to compensation in the amount
of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to be paid from the
State Treasury as provided in Section 36-30-3.
b. This subsection does not apply if the first
responder's death was caused by the willful misconduct of the
first responder; or was due to his or her own intoxication ; or
his or her willful failure or refusal to use safety appliances
provided by his or her employer ; or his or her willful refusal
or neglect to perform a statutory duty or any other willful
violation of a law ; or his or her willful breach of a
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violation of a law ; or his or her willful breach of a
reasonable rule or regulation governing the performance of his
or her duties or his or her employment of which rule or
regulation he or she had knowledge.
c. Notwithstanding the foregoing, for purposes of
deaths caused by COVID-19, the dependents or beneficiaries of
the deceased first responder shall be entitled to the
compensation described in paragraph (a)(1)a. regardless of the
first responder's vaccination status against COVID-19, and
regardless of whether the first responder regularly wore masks
or other filtration devices in the performance of his or her
duties.
(2) Any first responder whose death results proximately
from an injury received while performing his or her duties,
for the purposes of this article, shall be deemed to have been
killed while in the performance of such duties.
(3) A volunteer firefighter or a member of an organized
rescue squad who dies of cardiac arrest, cerebrovascular
accident, or pulmonary edema within 24 hours after preparing
to respond to a called emergency or responding to an
emergency; or after serving in his or her capacity at an
emergency; or after participating in a required physical
training exercise shall be presumed to have died in the
performance of his or her duties.
(4)a. If the State Health Officer determines from all
available evidence that a volunteer firefighter, who is a
member of an organized volunteer fire department registered
with the Alabama Forestry Commission, has become totally
disabled as a result of any injury received while engaged in
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disabled as a result of any injury received while engaged in
the performance of his or her fire-fighting duties and the
disability is likely to continue for more than 12 months from
the date the injury is incurred, then the firefighter shall be
entitled to receive disability compensation in the amount of
one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to be paid from the
State Treasury as provided in Section 36-30-3.
b. The term "total disability " shall be interpreted to
mean that the injured party is medically disabled to the
extent that he or she cannot perform the duties of the job
occupation or profession in which he or she was engaging at
the time the injury was sustained.
c. The State Health Officer may seek the assistance of
any state agency in making the determination of disability and
the state agencies shall cooperate with the State Health
Officer in such regard.
d. The State Health Officer shall render a decision
within 30 days of the time a claim is filed.
e. If a volunteer firefighter disagrees with any
officer, he or she may appeal the determination to the State
Board of Adjustment in accordance with such board's procedures
for such appeals.
(b) Beginning in calendar year 2009, the compensation
amounts payable under this section shall be adjusted on
January 1 of each year to reflect any increase during the
preceding calendar year in the consumer price index as
published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics. The adjustment shall equal the percentage change
in the consumer price index during the preceding calendar
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in the consumer price index during the preceding calendar
year.
(c) Any person who currently serves or previously
served as a firefighter , or law enforcement officer ,or other
first responder who dies as a result of a firefighter's
occupational disease as defined in Section 11-43-144 or
36-30-40, or law enforcement officer's occupational disease as
defined in Section 36-30-20 shall be qualified for a state
death benefit as provided in subsection (a) as if the person
died in the performance of his or her duties, provided he or
she satisfies the three years' service requirement and
physical examination requirements set forth in Section
11-43-144, 36-30-22, or 36-30-41, respectively.
(d) Any application for the state death benefit that
was submitted during the period from April 29, 2010, until May
27, 2015, and denied because the firefighter , or law
enforcement officer ,or other first responder was no longer
employed on the date of death may be resubmitted based on
subsection (c) within six months of May 27, 2015, and
reconsidered and granted by the awarding authority.
(e) The provisions of this section as amended by Act
2021-488 shall be retroactive to any death covered by this
chapter as amended after January 1, 2019.
(f) The provisions of this section as amended by Act
2022-437 shall be retroactive to any death caused by COVID-19
covered by this chapter as amended between March 13, 2020, and
December 31, 2022."
Section 2. This act shall become effective on October
1, 2024.
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