A former deputy fire chief, injured on duty when a chair broke beneath him, has lost another round in a fight over disability retirement benefits.
Terrence Crowder, a 25-year employee of the Camden Fire Department, has sought approval for more than a decade to receive increased benefits in connection with a February 2008 accident in a city firehouse.
But a state appeals court ruled against him, saying the chair’s collapse did not directly cause the disability that led to Crowder’s retirement.
The two-judge panel pointed instead to the firefighter’s history of on-duty back injuries dating to 1986 and a pre-existing degenerative condition. The 2008 accident occurred when Crowder walked into a bay area that held vehicles and served as a lounge for firefighters, according to an earlier ruling in the case. The deputy chief lowered himself into a “green, plastic-molded, one-piece lawn chair,” it said.
"The chair ‘exploded,’ breaking into several pieces” and dropping Crowder two to three feet onto a concrete floor, Friday's ruling said.