Could an injured firefighter apply for disability benefits after losing retirement-system membership?

Plain-English summary

Louisiana's Firefighters' Retirement System asked about a firefighter injured while a member who later left service and waited more than eighteen months to apply for disability benefits. The person had less than five years of credited service and no deferred annuity. In Opinion 03-0126, the Attorney General concluded the person was no longer eligible to apply. Under the then-existing membership rule, more than eighteen months away from service without a deferred annuity ended membership.

The AG recognized that an injury occurring during membership could support a disability claim, but said the application still had to be timely. The disability provisions referred to a member applying while in service and to awards for eligible members. Once membership ceased under the facts presented, the former firefighter could no longer apply as a member.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2003. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

What the opinion meant at issuance

Injured firefighters

The AG said an injury sustained during membership alone did not preserve the ability to seek benefits after statutory membership ended. His answer addressed a former member without deferred-annuity entitlement who applied after the absence period.

Retirement-system board

The opinion linked eligibility to current membership and the statute ending membership after prolonged absence. It did not decide medical disability or the merits of a timely filed claim.

Common questions

Q: Did a work injury preserve benefit eligibility after membership ended? A: The AG said no in the described circumstances; the former member could no longer apply after more than eighteen months away without a deferred annuity.

Q: What made the applicant cease to be a member?
A: The opinion quoted the then-existing rule terminating membership after over eighteen months out of service when no deferred annuity was available.

Q: Did the AG decide whether the firefighter was medically disabled? A: No. The opinion resolved application eligibility based on membership status, not the medical merits.

Background and statutory framework

The letter quoted LSA-R.S. 11:215 on disability applications while in service, LSA-R.S. 11:2253 on membership ending after an extended absence, and LSA-R.S. 11:2258 on disability awards to eligible members. The official letter is dated August 25, 2003.

Citations and references

Authorities in the opinion: LSA-R.S. 11:2253; LSA-R.S. 11:2258; LSA-R.S. 11:215.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/03-0126

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

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One American Place
301 Main Street, Suite 600
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
P.O. Box 94005
CIVIL DIVISION
TEL.: (225) 342-7013
FAX: (225) 342-2090
BATON ROUGE
RICHARD P. IEYOUB
70B04-9005
ATTORNEY GENERAL

AUG 2 5 2003
Opinion Number 03-0126

92-A-2-(n) RETIREMENT- Firefighters
LSA-R.S. 11:215; 11:2253; 11:2258
Mr. Steven S. Stockstill
Member of the Firefighters’ Retirement System who
Firefighter’s Retirement System
became injured while he was a member, but who was
P.O. Box 94095
then absent from service for more than eighteen months,
has ceased to be member of the retirement system, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70804-9095 is no longer eligible to apply for disability benefits.

Dear Mr. Stockstill:

Reference is made to your request for an opinion of this office, on behalf of the Firefighter’s Retirement System ("FRS") Board of Trustees, regarding the eligibility of former members of FRS for disability benefits. Specifically, you ask this office to address the following, with regard to a firefighter that you advise has less than five years of creditable service, and is not entitled to a deferred annuity:

’~/here a member of this system becomes injured in an accident which prevents him from being further employed as a firefighter and where his employment as a firefighter is terminated because he is unable to perform his duties as a firefighter, and where he submits an application for FRS disability benefits based on that accident, but after being absent from service for a period of more than eighteen months, is the person considered a member for purposes of applying for disability benefits, or does R.S. 11:2253(B) render such a person ineligible because his membership ceased after being absent from service for more than eighteen months?"

We have examined the laws pertaining to FRS, and in particular the provisions you have called our attention to, and find the following statutory provisions to be pertinent to your request:"

LSA-R.S. 11:215 pertinently provides:

"A. A member who becomes disabled, and who files for disability benefits while in service, and who upon medical examination and certification as provided for elsewhere in this Subpart, is found to be totally disabled solely as the result of injuries sustained in the performance of his official duties...shall be entitled to disability benefits under the provisions of R.S. 11:2258(B)." (Emphasis added).

Page 2

Opinion Number 03-0126
Mr. Steven S. Stockstill
Firefighter’s Retirement System
Page -2-

With regard to membership, LSA-R.S. 11:2253 pertinently provides:

"B. Should any member, after becoming a member, be absent from service for more that eighteen months and not be entitled to a deferred annuity as provided in this Chapter.. . he shaft thereupon cease to be a member." (Emphasis added).

You have also called our attention to LSA-R.S. 11:2258, which provides, with regard to the award of disability benefits, that such benefits shall be awarded to "eligible members".

Regrettably, we must advise that it is the opinion of this office that although members of the FRS who become injured while they are members are entitled to apply for disability benefits, the application must be timely made. Based upon the foregoing provisions of law, and in particular LSA-R.S. 11:2253(B), we are constrained to advise that a member of the Firefighters’ Retirement System who became injured while he was a member, but who was then absent from service for more than eighteen months, has ceased to be a member of the retirement system, and is no longer eligible to apply for disability benefits.

We trust the foregoing to be of assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact this office if we can be of further assistance.

Yours very truly,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
Attorney General

BY:
.~EAI~NE-MARIE ZER’!-~E
Assi~ant Attorney GerieraY

RPI/JMZB/dam