In the Matter of David Wallen, Appellant, v. Howard Safir, as Police Commissioner of the City of New York, and as Chair of the Board of Trustees Police Pension Fund, Article II, et al., Respondents

In the Matter of David Wallen, Appellant, v Howard Safir, as Police Commissioner of the City of New York, and as Chair of the Board of Trustees Police Pension Fund, Article II, et al., Respondents. [689 NYS2d 392] [MAJORITY] —Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Diane Lebedeff, J.), entered December 16, 1997, which denied petitioner’s CPLR article 78 application to annul respondents’ denial of his application for accident disability retirement benefits, unanimously affirmed, without costs. The application was properly denied on the ground that petitioner, whose disabling line-of-duty ankle injury was sustained when he tripped over a raised plank of plywood covering part of a precinct house stairway landing, failed to show that his injury was the result of an accident, i.e., a sudden and unexpected event (see, Matter of Starnella v Bratton, 92 NY2d 836, 839). Concur — Sullivan, J. P., Williams, Wallach, Rubin and Mazzarelli, JJ.