Claim of Flo v. General Electric Co.

The statute setting up disability benefits is laid on a very broad base. (Disability Benefits Law, § 203.) It does not provide merely that benefits are payable if the disability occurs at precisely the time a claimant is doing work for wages; rather the right flows from the relationship.

Benefits, so the statute runs, shall be payable to “ employees ” of a covered employer. It is not required they be drawing pay for hire when disability occurs; but rather that they be “ in employment ”, which is a more inclusive term and which could reasonably contemplate temporary leaves of absence where it…