Petitioner H.F. appealed from the Board of Trustees (Board) of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System's final agency decision (FAD), which denied his application for accidental disability retirement (ADR) benefits, under N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(a)(1), based on an exacerbation of a preexisting mental health disorder. The question presented on appeal is whether the Board correctly interpreted Richardson v. Board of Trustees, Police & Firemen's Retirement System factor 2(c)—which provides that a traumatic event must be "caused by a circumstance external to the member (not the result of preexisting disease that is aggravated or accelerated by the work)"—as requiring the member to establish "a new onset of a [mental] disease." 192 N.J. 189, 213 (2007). The Board determined it was not enough for a member to prove a disabling exacerbation of a preexisting mental health disorder caused from a traumatic event.
H.F., a former Sheriff's Officer, had applied for ADR benefits after suffering a mental disability, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), from the shooting of an armed suspect. The Board found H.F. satisfied the Supreme Court's established "mental-mental category of injuries" standard because he was involved in a "terrifying or horror-inducing event" that presented "actual or threatened death or serious injury." Patterson v. Bd. of Trs., SPRS, 194 N.J. 29, 48, 50 (2008). While the Board awarded two other officers ADR benefits after the shooting, H.F.'s were denied. In denying his application, the Board adopted the Administrative Law Judge's initial decision that Richardson factor 2(c) was not satisfied because it was "[un]likely" the traumatic shooting "directly caused [H.F.] . . . a completely new case of PTSD" and that he instead suffered an exacerbation of "pre[]existing, dormant" PTSD from his military service.
The court reversed, holding the Board's heightened interpretation was unsupported because Richardson factor 2(c) is satisfied when a member demonstrates he or she has suffered a disabling exacerbation of a preexisting mental health disorder caused by an external traumatic event, which was not a result of regular work duties. The undisputed credible medical evidence established H.F. suffered a mental health disability, an exacerbation of PTSD, from the traumatic shooting that was external to his regular police duties. The court remanded the matter to the Board, directing that H.F. be awarded ADR benefits.