Matter of Visconti v Kelly
2008 NY Slip Op 01849 [49 AD3d 273]
March 4, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, May 14, 2008


In the Matter of Nicholas Visconti, Appellant,
v
Raymond Kelly, as Police Commissioner of the City of New York, and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Police Pension Fund, Article II, et al., Respondents.

[*1] Jeffrey L. Goldberg, P.C., Lake Success (Chester P. Lukaszewski of counsel), for appellant.

Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York City (Mordecai Newman of counsel), for respondents.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael D. Stallman, J.), entered May 15, 2006, dismissing this proceeding to annul respondents' denial of accident disability retirement, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Petitioner sustained back injuries in a 1994 line-of-duty accident and a 1999 line-of-duty incident while removing a spare tire from a police vehicle, the latter of which was not an "accident" for pension purposes (see Matter of Menna v New York City Employees' Retirement Sys., 59 NY2d 696 [1983]).

The Board of Trustees' determination in 2004 that the 1999 injury was the competent causal factor of petitioner's disability was supported by some credible evidence, and its ruling was neither arbitrary nor capricious (see Matter of Borenstein v New York City Employees' Retirement Sys., 88 NY2d 756, 760-761 [1996]).

After reevaluating its position as to the cause of petitioner's disability, in light of the gap in treatment between the two injuries, the Medical Board concluded that the 1999 injury was the competent causal factor. This finding is supported by petitioner's conservative treatment for the 1994 injury, the subsequent gap in treatment, and his return to full duty (see Matter of Doyle v Kelly, 8 AD3d 125, 126 [2004]; Matter of Calzerano v Board of Trustees of N.Y. City Police Pension Fund, Art. II, 245 AD2d 84 [1997]). [*2]

We have considered petitioner's remaining arguments and find them unavailing. Concur—Andrias, J.P., Friedman, Buckley, McGuire and Moskowitz, JJ.