The widow of a retired FDNY lieutenant has filed suit challenging the New York City Fire Pension Fund’s refusal to treat her husband’s death as a World Trade Center line-of-duty death.

Aline Ward filed an Article 78 petition in New York County Supreme Court naming the New York City Fire Pension Fund, its Board of Trustees, Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, and the City of New York as respondents. She is seeking accidental-death benefits based on the World Trade Center presumption contained in New York City Administrative Code § 13-353.1.

Lieutenant Patrick Ward participated in the rescue and recovery operations following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. According to the petition, Lieutenant Ward worked at the World Trade Center site on September 11 and during the days that followed. He returned for recovery work on November 23 and December 14, 2001, and worked at the Fresh Kills Landfill on January 15, 2002.

Lieutenant Ward began experiencing respiratory problems almost immediately. An October 4, 2001 FDNY Bureau of Health Services report noted that he continued to experience pulmonary congestion following the collapse. Testing showed “an interval decline in flow rates consistent with obstructive lung disease.” He was diagnosed with asthma and prescribed an inhaler.

In January 2002, Lieutenant Ward was experiencing a recurrent cough, shortness of breath, and abnormal lung sounds. He was diagnosed with acute tracheitis the following month. By June 2002, medical records documented coughing, upper-respiratory congestion, and wheezing. He suffered a heart attack in September 2006 and underwent bypass surgery. His medical conditions eventually included coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, emphysema, sleep apnea, shortness of breath, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

In May 2007, the Fire Pension Fund Medical Board determined that Lieutenant Ward’s COPD prevented him from performing full firefighting duties. He was granted accidental-disability retirement under the World Trade Center law.

Lieutenant Ward’s respiratory continued to deteriorate despite monitoring and treatment through the FDNY World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program. He was admitted to Calvary Hospital Hospice in August 2024, and passed away on November 5, 2024.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s confidential medical report listed cardiorespiratory arrest caused by atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease as the immediate chain of death. The report also identified end-stage COPD as a significant condition contributing to Lieutenant Ward’s death.

Aline Ward applied for World Trade Center line-of-duty death benefits the following month. The death benefit are different from the WTC accidental-disability pension Lieutenant Ward received during his lifetime. That pension compensated Lieutenant Ward because his WTC-related COPD prevented him from performing his firefighting duties. Death benefits are paid to eligible survivors.

Ordinarily, an FDNY accidental-death benefit applies when a member dies before retirement from an accident sustained in the performance of duty. Lieutenant Ward, however, had been retired for approximately 17 years when he died.

The World Trade Center law extends accidental-death benefits to certain retirees who die from qualifying WTC conditions within 25 years of retirement. Once the beneficiary presents credible evidence that a qualifying condition caused or contributed to the retiree’s death, the law creates a presumption that the death resulted from the performance of duty unless the Pension Fund disproves that connection with competent evidence.

The New York Court of Appeals has held that the Pension Fund cannot overcome the presumption merely by pointing to an absence of evidence connecting the death to World Trade Center exposure. It must present “affirmative evidence to disprove causation.” That case is Matter of Bitchatchi v. Board of Trustees of the New York City Police Department Pension Fund, 20 N.Y.3d 268, 282 (2012).

The Fire Pension Fund Medical Board acknowledged that Lieutenant Ward had been granted WTC accidental-disability retirement because of COPD. It nevertheless concluded that COPD did not contribute to his death. The Medical Board attributed his episodes of acute respiratory failure primarily to cardiac disease and COVID-19 pneumonia. It also noted that his admission to Calvary Hospital identified end-stage dementia as the chief complaint and that the records did not document an acute COPD exacerbation or treatment for worsening pulmonary disease.

The Medical Board stated:

• “Although COPD was listed in his past medical history, there was no documentation of an acute exacerbation.… As needed, albuterol and oxygen along with comfort measures were recommended in the Calvary Hospital plan, treatment for an acute COPD or worsening pulmonary disease was not documented.”

The Board of Trustees adopted the Medical Board’s recommendation and denied Mrs. Ward’s application on March 25, 2026.

Her Article 78 petition contends that the Medical Board focused on the absence of an acute COPD exacerbation while failing to address the death report’s finding that end-stage COPD was a significant condition contributing to Lieutenant Ward’s death. She argues that COPD did not have to be the sole or primary cause of death for the WTC presumption to apply.

The petition also relies on the Pension Fund’s 2007 determination that Lieutenant Ward’s COPD was a disabling WTC condition, the WTC Health Program’s certification of his obstructive airway disease, his declining pulmonary function, and his history of respiratory failure and oxygen dependence.

Mrs. Ward is asking the court to annul the denial as arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and unlawful. She claims the Pension Fund failed to rebut the WTC presumption with competent evidence and that the Medical Board’s determination lacked a rational basis. She is asking the court to direct the award of accidental-death benefits or, alternatively, return her application to the Pension Fund for reconsideration.

The key language from the city’s Administrative Code is as follows:

New York City Administrative Code § 13-353.1(1)(a):

• “if any condition or impairment of health is caused by a qualifying World Trade Center condition as defined in [N.Y. Retire. & Soc. Sec. Law § 2(36)], it shall be presumptive evidence that it was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty and the natural and proximate result of an accident not caused by such member’s own willful negligence, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.”

New York City Administrative Code § 13-353.1(3):

• “a retiree who: (1) has met the criteria of subdivision one of this section and retired on a service or disability retirement . . . and (2) has not been retired for more than twenty-five years; and (3) dies from a qualifying World Trade Center condition . . . then unless the contrary be proven by competent evidence, such retiree shall be deemed to have died as a natural and proximate result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty and not as a result of willful negligence on his or her part.”