DALA Confirms Disability Rights for First Responders with Preexisting Conditions

In Foster v. Boston Retirement Board (CR-24-0032, July 11, 2025), the Massachusetts Division of Administrative Law Appeals reversed a denial of accidental disability retirement for Chiquita Foster, a former Boston Fire Department alarm operator. Foster, a Navy veteran, had developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after an assault during her service. Despite years of treatment and therapy, she was able to work successfully as a fire alarm operator beginning in 2014, handling long shifts that required her to take emergency calls, dispatch crews, and remain on the line during life-threatening incidents.

Her employment took a turning point after two critical events. In 2017, she managed a house fire call involving a baby in distress. The caller’s panic left Foster shaken and triggered a panic attack. The following year, in November 2018, she answered another emergency call in which the caller’s anxious tone reminded her of the prior fire. Distracted and overwhelmed, she entered the wrong address into the system, briefly misdirecting firefighters before the error was corrected. The incident caused a severe psychological breakdown. She left work mid-shift and never returned, later requiring hospitalization and intensive treatment.

A three-physician medical panel unanimously diagnosed Foster with PTSD, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorder. Each doctor concluded that the 2017 and 2018 incidents aggravated her preexisting PTSD to the point of permanent disability. Although the Boston Retirement Board commissioned a separate record review disputing her incapacity, the administrative magistrate gave greater weight to the panel’s in-person examinations and detailed explanations.

The Board argued that Foster had not suffered a compensable “personal injury” because the incidents were not unusually stressful. The magistrate rejected this reasoning, emphasizing that Massachusetts law does not require workplace events to be extraordinary or traumatic in order to qualify as “personal injury” under the retirement statute. Instead, what matters is whether the incident proximately caused or aggravated a condition to the point of disability. The decision found that Foster’s condition had been manageable until the November 2018 call, which served as the proximate cause of her permanent incapacity.

Ultimately, the denial was reversed and Foster was found entitled to accidental disability retirement. The ruling underscores several important principles: preexisting conditions do not preclude recovery if workplace incidents aggravate them into disabling conditions, “personal injury” does not demand extraordinary circumstances, and unanimous medical panel findings carry substantial weight. This case reaffirms that Massachusetts retirement systems must focus on whether job-related events directly contributed to a worker’s incapacity rather than dismissing claims based on an employee’s prior vulnerabilities.