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KRISTY BOWSER VS. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, POLICE AND FIREMEN'S RETIREMENT SYSTEM (POLICE AND FIREMEN'S RETIREMENT SYSTEM) (A-0568-16T4) The panel reverses the denial of an accidental disability pension to a corrections officer who was disabled after falling on ice near the parking lot on the grounds of jail where she worked. Unexpectedly directed to serve a second consecutive shift, the officer was on her way to retrieve feminine hygiene products from her car, because she was menstruating. In holding that her fall "occurr[ed] during and as a result of the performance of [her] regular or assigned duties," N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(1), the panel concludes the officer took the equivalent of a restroom break, which the Court in Kasper v. Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Pension & Annuity Fund, 164 N.J. 564, 586 n.7 (2000), stated was included within "an employee's performance of his or her regularly assigned tasks," if "within the confines of the workday at the work location." The panel rejects the Board's statement that parking lot accidents are categorically not eligible for accidental disability pensions, and distinguishes a parking lot accident that occurs during the journey to or from work, such as the one presented in Mattia v. Board of Trustees, Police and Firemen's Retirement System, decided today.
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