Mr. Lukaszewski successfully litigated (drafted and argued) in the Appellate Division Second Department (while at former employer J.L. Goldberg), Matter of Gaudioso v. Board of Trustees of the New York City Fire Department, Article 1-B Pension Fund, 40 A.D.3d 638, 835 N.Y.S.2d 396, 2007 N.Y. Slip Op. 03920 (2007)). In Gaudioso, Mr. Lukaszewski successfully demonstrated to the Appellate Division that the FDNY Pension Fund had acted improperly in awarding the petitioner a non-line-of-duty disability pensions rather than a line-of-duty disability pension for a right shoulder condition. In the case petitioner sustained a shoulder injury while on full duty while running into a burning building, and never returned to full duty thereafter. The Court ruled that: “There is no credible evidence in the record to support the Medical Board’s conclusion,” and ordered that, “the matter is remitted to the respondents’ [Board of Trustees] for the granting of petitioner’s [ADR] benefits.” *

Mr. Lukaszewski successfully litigated (drafted and argued) in the Appellate Division Second Department (while at former employer J.L. Goldberg), Stack v. Board of Trustees of the New York City Fire Department, Article 1-B Pension Fund, 832 N.Y.S.2d 55 (2007). In Stack, the Appellate Division held that the FDNY Pension Fund had acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying the disability pension application of the petitioner, for a spinal condition. Mr. Lukaszewski successfully demonstrated that the Medical Board and Board of Trustees had actually ignored their own expert who appeared to find the applicant disabled. He was also successful in demonstrating to the Court that the pension fund ultimately refused to incur the “minimal cost” of remanding the application to the Medical Board for a clarification. The Appellate Division found the Fund’s decision to be irrational and remitted the matter to respondents’ “for new medical reports and new medical findings by the Medical Board and a new determination by the Board of Trustees.” *

Chet Lukaszewski was recently published in the Nassau Bar Association Legal Journal, The Nassau Lawyer, for his article: The Gap in the Pension Law into which Sick ‘9/11’ Firefighters and other City Rescue Workers are Falling: a Legal Limbo with Devastating and Dangerous Ramifications. *