Safety Members Heart Trouble – County Retirement Act

Heart Trouble – County Retirement Act Gov’t Code 31720.5

Safety members heart trouble may be presumed job related under the County Retirement Act.        

To have the presumption apply, the member must prove that they are a safety employee:

1.  Safety Employees include fire, police, deputy sheriff, lifeguards and persons engaged  in active fire suppression; and 

2.  It must be proven that the member has 5 or more years of service in that qualifying position; and

3.  Heart trouble was developed or manifested while in actual service; and

4.  that the “heart trouble” permanently incapacitates (disables) the member from that position.

What is Heart Trouble for Safety Members 

Case law defines heart trouble as an affliction or distress caused by that organ or the system to which it belongs or any injury or disease to that portion of the body which, from an anatomical standpoint, is the heart.

Heart trouble examples include myocardial infarction (heart attack), Arteriosclerosis of coronary arteries, valvular lesions, scarring, idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis, calcific congenital bicuspid aortic stenosis, aortic valve disease, mitral valve disease, ventricular hypertrophy.

Once the member proves the required factors, then the Safety members heart trouble may be presumed job related under the County Retirement Act. However, the County Retirement Association may rebut (prove it is not caused by the job) that presumption. 

The Presumption May be Rebutted

The Retirement System may rebut the presumption that the Safety members heart trouble may be presumed job related under the County Retirement Act with showing a contemporaneous non work related event caused the heart trouble. It may also rebut the presumption with evidence that concurrent employment caused the heart trouble. Although uncommon, if there is a heart parasite, that there is evidence a heart parasite was not found in the geographical area where the member worked.

There are heart problems that do not rise to the level of heart trouble that trigger the presumption of job relatedness. These include  hypertension, coronary arteriosclerosis that is asymptomatic and not disabling, arteriosclerosis in a part of the body removed from the heart, cardiac neurosis, heart burn, psychiatric disorders that cause heart related symptoms. https://public-pensions.com/police-officers-deputy-sheriffs-and-firefighters/

Faunce, Singer & Oatman has represented safety members all over the State of California. Give us call for a free consultation.