The former firefighter who suffered career-ending injuries at the hands of a colleague who smashed a metal chair on his face will go to the state’s highest court today to demand a full pension.
Robert Walsh was struck by former firefighter Michael Silvestri in a Staten Island firehouse on New Year’s Eve 2003 over an argument about the date of Elvis Presley’s birthday.
Walsh will argue before a panel of Court of Appeals judges in Albany that he deserves a lucrative line-of-duty pension and not the half-pension he currently receives.
Walsh had to retire due to severe neurological damage from the attack. He said he deserves an “accidental” tax-free disability pension for life based on three-fourths of his average final year’s pay.
He currently receives a pension that pays 50 percent of his final average salary and is subjected to federal income tax, sources said.
In May 2012, the Appellate Division ruled for the FDNY, saying Walsh deserved only the lower pension benefits.
But the Court of Appeals decided to take the case and lawyer Robert Ungaro said past case law clearly supported his client’s claims.
November 14, 2011
NY Firefighter in Pension Battle Following Attack by Fellow Firefighter
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