New York A 10824: Permits accidental death benefits and/or special accidental death benefits to be awarded to the beneficiary of Patricia Espinosa

Bill Text

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A10824 Summary:

BILL NOA10824B

&nbsp

SAME ASSAME AS S09596-B

&nbsp

SPONSORFitzpatrick

&nbsp

COSPNSR

&nbsp

MLTSPNSR

&nbsp

&nbsp

Permits accidental death benefits and/or special accidental death benefits to be awarded to the beneficiary of Patricia Espinosa.

Go to top A10824 Actions:

BILL NOA10824B

&nbsp

04/01/2026referred to governmental employees

04/07/2026amend and recommit to governmental employees

04/07/2026print number 10824a

05/18/2026amend and recommit to governmental employees

05/18/2026print number 10824b

Go to topA10824 Committee&nbspVotes:

Go to topA10824 Floor&nbspVotes:

There are no Assembly votes for this bill in this legislative session.

Go to topA10824 Text:

 STATE OF NEW YORK
 ________________________________________________________________________

 10824--B

 IN ASSEMBLY

 April 1, 2026
 ___________

 Introduced by M. of A. FITZPATRICK -- read once and referred to the
 Committee on Governmental Employees -- committee discharged, bill
 amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
 tee -- again reported from said committee with amendments, ordered
 reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee

 AN ACT to permit accidental death benefits and/or special accidental
 death benefits to be awarded to the beneficiary of Patricia Espinosa

 The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
 bly, do enact as follows:

 1 Section 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of any law, rule or regu-
 2 lation to the contrary, Patricia Espinosa, who was a member of the New
 3 York state and local police and fire retirement system employed as a
 4 police officer by the county of Nassau, and who died on January 31, 2026
 5 as the result of an accident which occurred while she was travelling to
 6 work, shall be deemed to have died as the natural and proximate result
 7 of an accident sustained in the performance of duty. The statutory bene-
 8 ficiary or beneficiaries of Patricia Espinosa shall be eligible to
 9 receive the accidental death benefit and/or special accidental death
 10 benefit if an application therefor is filed within one year of the
 11 effective date of this act. Any amounts paid by the New York state and
 12 local police and fire retirement system as the result of the death of
 13 Patricia Espinosa prior to the receipt of the accidental death benefit
 14 and/or special accidental death benefit pursuant to this section shall
 15 be deducted from the benefit payable on an actuarially equivalent basis
 16 over the expected future lifetime of the statutory beneficiary or bene-
 17 ficiaries.
 18 § 2. All costs associated with this act shall be borne by the state of
 19 New York.
 20 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall be deemed to
 21 have been in full force and effect on and after January 31, 2026.
 FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
 This bill would make the statutory beneficiaries of deceased police
 officer Patricia Espinosa eligible to receive an accidental death bene-
 fit pursuant to sections 361 and 361-a of the retirement and social

 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
 [ ] is old law to be omitted.
 LBD14921-11-6

 A. 10824--B 2

 security law (RSSL). The current death benefit will be recalculated, and
 payment will be made to the statutory beneficiaries retroactive to Janu-
 ary 31, 2026, the date of Patricia Espinosa's death.
 There will be an immediate past service cost of $3.20 million borne by
 the state of New York as a one-time payment. This cost assumes that
 payment will be made on March 1, 2027.
 This bill will not increase the state of New York's annual contrib-
 utions.
 Summary of relevant resources:
 Membership data as of March 31, 2025 was used to measure the impact of
 the bill, the same data used in the Actuarial Valuations dated April 1,
 2025. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2025 Report
 of the Actuary and the 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The
 actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2025 Annual
 Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, and the Codes, Rules
 and Regulations of the State of New York: Audit and Control. The fair
 value of assets and GASB disclosures can be found in the 2025 Financial
 Statements and S