§ 36-8-12-8 — Insurance; death benefits; permanent disability; liability coverage; limitations on liability

Indiana § 36-8-12-8

• Jurisdiction: Indiana
• Title 36: LOCAL GOVERNMENT
• Art. 8: PUBLIC SAFETY
• Ch. 12: Volunteer Fire Departments

Text

(a) The policy of insurance required by section
6 of this chapter must provide for the payment of a sum not less than
one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to the beneficiary,
beneficiaries, or estate of a volunteer firefighter or member of the
emergency medical services personnel if the firefighter or member of
the emergency medical services personnel dies from an injury or smoke
inhalation occurring while in the performance of the firefighter's or
member of the emergency medical services personnel's duties as a
volunteer firefighter or member of the emergency medical services
personnel or from a cardiac disease event proximately caused within
forty-eight (48) hours by or occurring while in the performance of the
firefighter's or member of the emergency medical services personnel's
duties as a volunteer firefighter or member of the emergency medical
services personnel.
(b) The policy of insurance must provide for the payment of a sum
not less than one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to the
volunteer firefighter or member of the emergency medical services
personnel if the firefighter or member of the emergency medical
services personnel becomes totally and permanently disabled for a
continuous period of not less than two hundred sixty (260) weeks as a
result of an injury or smoke inhalation occurring in the performance of
the firefighter's or member of the emergency medical services
personnel's duties as a volunteer firefighter or member of the
emergency medical services personnel.
(c) The policy of insurance must also provide for indemnification to
a member of a volunteer fire department who becomes partially and
permanently disabled or impaired as a result of an injury or smoke
inhalation occurring in the performance of the firefighter's or member
of the emergency medical services personnel's duties.
(d) For the purposes of this section, partial and permanent disability
or impairment shall be indemnified as a percentage factor of a whole
person.
(e) In addition to other insurance provided volunteer firefighters or
emergency medical services personnel under this chapter, each unit
shall be covered by an insurance policy that provides a minimum of
three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) of insurance coverage for
the liability of all of the unit's volunteer firefighters or emergency
medical services personnel for bodily injury or property damage caused
by the firefighters or emergency medical services personnel acting in
the scope of their duties while on the scene of a fire or other
emergency. The civil liability of a volunteer firefighter or member of
the emergency medical services personnel for:
(1) an act that is within the scope of a volunteer firefighter's
duties; or
(2) the failure to do an act that is within the scope of a volunteer
firefighter's duties;
while performing emergency services at the scene of a fire or other
emergency or while traveling in an emergency vehicle from the fire
station to the scene of the fire or emergency or from the scene of a fire
or emergency back to the fire station is limited to the coverage
provided by the insurance policy purchased under this subsection. A
volunteer firefighter or member of the emergency medical services
personnel is not liable for punitive damages for any act that is within
the scope of a volunteer firefighter's or member of the emergency
medical services personnel's duties. However, if insurance as required
under this subsection is not in effect to provide liability coverage for a
volunteer firefighter or member of the emergency medical services
personnel, the firefighter or member of the emergency medical services
personnel is not subject to civil liability for an act or a failure to act as
described in this subsection.
[Pre-Local Government Recodification Citation:
19-1-40-9.]
As added by Acts 1981, P.L.309, SEC.64. Amended by
P.L.367-1983, SEC.2; P.L.204-1984, SEC.1; P.L.200-1986, SEC.2;
P.L.217-1989, SEC.7; P.L.172-1990, SEC.1; P.L.268-1993, SEC.2;
P.L.1-1999, SEC.94; P.L.192-1999, SEC.3; P.L.174-2009,
SEC.5.