TOWN OF MAMARONECK PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION, INC., LOCAL 898 v. VOLUNTEER AND EXEMPT FIREMEN'S BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION

• Decision Date: 04 March 2002
• Citation: 738 N.Y.S.2d 93,292 A.D.2d 375
• Parties: TOWN OF MAMARONECK PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION, INC., LOCAL 898, et al., Appellants,<BR>v.<BR>VOLUNTEER AND EXEMPT FIREMEN'S BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF THE TOWN OF MAMARONECK, N.Y., et al., Respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

292 A.D.2d 375

738 N.Y.S.2d 93

TOWN OF MAMARONECK PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION, INC., LOCAL 898, et al., Appellants,

v.VOLUNTEER AND EXEMPT FIREMEN'S BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF THE TOWN OF MAMARONECK, N.Y., et al., Respondents.

Decided March 4, 2002.

Smith, J.P., Goldstein, McGinity and H. Miller, JJ., concur.

Ordered that the order and judgment is affirmed, with costs.

The Fire Department of the Town of Mamaroneck is comprised of both volunteer and exempt firefighters and paid professional firefighters. The plaintiffs are paid professional firefighters and their collective bargaining representative is the Town of Mamaroneck Professional Firefighters Association, Inc. (hereinafter the Union). In the instant action, the plaintiffs, pursuant to their status as paid firefighters and as the collective bargaining representative of paid firefighters, seek, among other things, a judgment declaring that they are entitled to a portion of taxes collected pursuant to Insurance Law §§ 9104 and 9105 on certain fire insurance premiums covering property in the Town of Mamaroneck or the proportionate share of certain fire insurance premiums attributable to property in the Town of Mamaroneck.

The defendant Volunteer and Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Association (hereinafter the Benevolent Association) is the recipient of taxes collected pursuant to Insurance Law §§ 9104 and 9105. The Benevolent Association was created by special law of the Legislature (L 1955, ch 39). Pursuant to section 8 of chapter 39 of the Laws of 1955, the Benevolent Association is designated to receive all taxes collected pursuant to Insurance Law former § 553 (now Insurance Law § 9104), and the "share of the tax imposed by" Insurance Law former § 554 (now Insurance Law § 9105), "based upon the business written in the territory." Section 8 further provides that "[s]uch taxes shall only be used for the care and relief of disabled or indigent volunteer and exempt firemen and their families."

Insurance Law §§ 9104 and 9105 provide that the designated recipients for taxes collected under those statutes are either the fiscal officer of the fire department of the municipality, the fiscal officer of the municipality, or, in the case where there is a special law designating the entity entitled to receive the premium tax, the entity designated by that special law (see, Insurance Law § 9104 [a]; § 9105 [d] [2]). The plaintiff Union clearly has no right to receive a portion of the taxes collected.

In determining for whose benefit the taxes collected are to be used, the Insurance Law creates no preference favoring paid firefighters over...