Retirement and Social Security Law § 363-a · Title 8. Death Benefits and Disability Retirement
Firefighters and police officers; certain disabilities
Text — Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
* § 363-a. Firefighters and police officers; certain disabilities. 1. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or of any general, special, or local law to the contrary, any condition of impairment of health caused by diseases of the heart, resulting in disability or death to a firefighter shall be presumptive evidence that it was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty and the natural and proximate result of an accident, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.
2. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or of any general, special, or local law to the contrary, any condition of impairment of health caused by diseases of the heart, resulting in disability or death to a police officer, presently employed, and who shall have sustained such disability while so employed, shall be presumptive evidence that it was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty and the natural and proximate result of an accident, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.
3. As used in this section, the terms "firefighter" and "police officer" mean any member who is performing police or fire service, as the phrase police or fire service is defined in paragraphs a, b, c, d, f (as added by chapter six hundred seventy-four of the laws of nineteen eighty-six), f (as added by chapter six hundred seventy-seven of the laws of nineteen eighty-six), g, h, i and j of subdivision eleven of section three hundred two of this article, and who, prior to entry into service as a firefighter or police officer, successfully passed a physical examination which failed to disclose evidence of any disease or other impairment of the heart.
4. The provisions of this section shall remain in full force and effect to and including August thirty-first, nineteen hundred seventy-six.
* NB Expired August 31, 1976 -- Kept alive per sub. a of § 480
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/RSS363-A
- Text hash
- sha256 48631c102c9f59df76bbd1ef00efe81ba0729570e9398831e0091078a127e402
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
- The Senate's note "Expired August 31, 1976 -- Kept alive per sub. a of § 480" dates the end of this text, or of part of it, in the past; the Senate still prints it.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.