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An N.J. appeals panel today ruled that a Jersey City firefighter is entitled to an accidental disability pension for injuries he suffered in 2010 while breaking into a burning home. (File photo)

(file photo)

TRENTON — A Jersey City firefighter who broke down the front door of a burning home and saved two people in 2010 but was later denied an accidental disability pension for a resulting back injury is entitled to the benefit, a state appeals panel ruled today.

At 2 a.m. Jan. 12, 2010, James Moran was dispatched to the house, which was boarded up and appeared to be unoccupied, court records show. As he was preparing to prevent the fire from spreading, he heard screams from inside, the records show.

The truck company, which was equipped and prepared to forcefully enter the home, had not yet arrived on scene, so Moran used his shoulder, leg and back to push through the front door, and two people were rescued from the building, according to the records.

Moran said during hearings on the matter that the two would have died had he not entered.

More than a year after the incident, Moran applied to the Police and Firemen's Retirement System seeking an accidental disability retirement pension for his injuries, which would have afforded him two-thirds of his final salary of $95,439, or about $63,000 annually.

The pension board, however, ruled that Moran did not meet one of the criteria for such a pension, specifically the one that states the injury must be the result of a traumatic event that is "undesigned and unexpected." The board instead awarded him an ordinary disability pension, which afforded him 40 percent of his salary, or about $38,000 annually.

An administrative law judge sided with Moran and recommended accidental disability, but the board rejected the findings, stating, "simply kicking in a door or intentionally using one's back to force entry does not constitute an 'unexpected happening.'"

The board also found the actions to be within the normal scope of his job.

"Here, the work activity itself was not undesigned or unexpected," the board said. Mr. Moran was disabled as a direct result of performing the work he intentionally set out to do."

But the three-judge appeals panel agreed with the administrative law judge's findings and reversed the board's denial of the pension, ruling that it took too narrow a view of the law.

"The undesigned and unexpected event here was the combination of unusual circumstances that led to Moran's injury: the failure of the truck unit to arrive, and the discovery of victims trapped inside a fully engulfed burning building, at a point when Moran did not have available to him the tools that would ordinarily be used to break down the door," Judge Susan Reisner wrote on behalf of the panel.

The panel also criticized the board for its "backhanded" criticism of Moran in its reference to him deviating from training in failing to use the ax on the truck to open the door. Moran's captain testified that he did not have access to the ax at the time he needed it.

"The ALJ found that Moran's training had not prepared him to break into burning buildings without the battering rams and other specialized equipment used by the truck company," Reisner wrote. "Indeed, there was no evidence to the contrary."

Christopher Baxter may be reached at cbaxter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cbaxter1. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.