                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DISABILITY RESULTING FROM ACTIVITIES IN DISCHARGE OF OFFICIAL DUTIES (§
51.1-813)

If any member of a police department of a county, city, or town, other than the
City of Richmond, which has a pension plan becomes disabled as a result of
activities in the discharge of the member&#8217;s official duties, the member
shall receive, as pension and benefits during such disability, the sum of not
less than sixty-six and two-thirds percent of the member&#8217;s salary until
eligible to retire under age and service retirement. The member shall then be
retired on the age and service pension as provided in § 51.1-811.

Any member of a county, city, or town police department or any sheriff or deputy
sheriff who dies or is totally or partially disabled as a result of hypertension
or heart disease shall be presumed to have died or become disabled in the line
of duty, unless the contrary is shown by a preponderance of competent evidence.
To be eligible, or for a beneficiary to be eligible, for retirement, sickness,
or other benefit payments based upon such presumption, a member, sheriff, or
deputy sheriff shall, before the claim was filed, have had a physical
examination and been found free from hypertension or heart disease. The physical
examination shall have included such appropriate laboratory and other diagnostic
studies as the governing body prescribed and shall have been conducted by
physicians whose qualifications were prescribed by the governing body. Any
member, sheriff, or deputy sheriff filing a claim for such benefits based upon
disability incurred in the line of duty shall, if requested by the governing
body, submit to a physical examination by any physician designated by the
governing body. The examination may include such tests or studies as may
reasonably be prescribed by the designated physician or, in the case of a claim
for death benefits, include a postmortem examination to be performed by the
medical examiner for the county, city, or town appointed under § 32.1-282. The
member or claimant shall have the right to have present at such examination, at
his own expense, any qualified physician he may designate.

Michie Code 1942, § 3035k; Code 1950, § 51-122; 1950, p. 739; 1973, c. 499;
1974, c. 94; 1976, c. 772; 1978, c. 769; 1982, c. 581; 1990, c. 832.
