Grumet v. Goodbody

Before the days of paid city firemen, the various small communities now making up the five boroughs had volunteer firemen just as they do in some suburban communities today. There came a time when the city, in recognition of its indebtedness to these self-sacrificing citizens, created funds to provide financial assistance to those of them and their widows who became indigent and disabled.

One such fund now before the court, known as the Exempt Firemen’s Benevolent Fund of the County of Kings, has been functioning for many years. It now has some forty-one beneficiaries, whose average age is…