1-1 By: Leedom S.B. No. 91
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed November 22, 1994; January 11, 1995,
1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
1-4 February 6, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas
1-5 13, Nays 0; February 6, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to disability retirement under the Employees Retirement
1-9 System of Texas.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Subdivision (12), Section 811.001, Government
1-12 Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-13 (12) "Occupational death or disability" means death or
1-14 disability from:
1-15 (A) an injury <or disease> that directly results
1-16 from a specific act or occurrence determinable by a definite time
1-17 and place, and directly results from an inherent risk or hazard
1-18 peculiar to a duty that arises from and in the course of state
1-19 employment; or
1-20 (B) a disease that directly results from an
1-21 inherent risk or hazard peculiar to a duty that arises from and in
1-22 the course of state employment.
1-23 SECTION 2. (a) A disability retiree of the Employees
1-24 Retirement System of Texas whose claim of an occupational
1-25 disability was denied by the retirement system before the effective
1-26 date of this Act is entitled to an administrative hearing to
1-27 determine whether the person's disability would have been
1-28 occupational under Subdivision (12), Section 811.001, Government
1-29 Code, as amended by this Act, if that definition had been in effect
1-30 at the time the disability was incurred. A request for a hearing
1-31 described by this subsection must be filed with the retirement
1-32 system before January 1, 1997, or the right is waived.
1-33 (b) The Employees Retirement System of Texas shall mail to
1-34 each disability retiree whose claim of an occupational disability
1-35 was denied by the retirement system in the two years preceding the
1-36 effective date of this Act a notice of the right to a hearing under
1-37 this section.
1-38 (c) After a hearing, if the Employees Retirement System of
1-39 Texas determines that the retiree's disability would have been
1-40 considered occupational if Subdivision (12), Section 811.001,
1-41 Government Code, as amended by this Act, had been in effect at the
1-42 time the disability was incurred, the retirement system shall
1-43 recompute the retiree's annuity as an occupational disability
1-44 retirement annuity of the same type as the annuity originally
1-45 selected by the retiree. The recomputed annuity becomes payable
1-46 beginning with the first payment that becomes due after the
1-47 redetermination is made of the nature of the disability.
1-48 (d) A person whose annuity is recomputed under this section
1-49 is considered a retiree because of occupational disability for
1-50 purposes of all programs administered by the Employees Retirement
1-51 System of Texas.
1-52 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-53 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-54 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-55 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-56 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-57 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-58 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-59 * * * * *