Harckham Passes Bill to Reverse Widow's Unjust Pension Denial

Senator Pete Harckham, 40th Senate District, announced that S.4916, his bill to reverse a grave injustice done to the family of the late James G, Lynch, was passed by the NYS Senate. The bill grants Lynch, who worked for the NYS Department of Transportation for 25 years, retirement from the New York state and local employee’s retirement system on June 10, 2016, which would allow his dependents to collect the pension they expected to have.

“Mr. Lynch worked for the NYS DOT for 25 years, ensuring school buses were safe, when he began the process to retire. However, before he could complete the process, he suddenly fell ill with lung cancer and passed away, never getting the chance to finalize his retirement paperwork," said Harckham. "Because of his brief, fatal illness, his family has been denied the pension he worked hard to earn and this bill will right that wrong. It's outrageous that this family had to endure this trauma on top of the death of their loved one. No family should ever have to go through this again.”

Lynch’s widow, Judy Lynch, said: “I'm grateful to Senator Harckham and his team who jumped on this as soon as they heard about it, and brought this bill to the floor of the Senate to be passed. I contacted the Senator's office before he was even sworn in and was amazed that he contacted me immediately and told me what he was going to do to help me. I’m hoping that the Assembly passes the bill as well. Ultimately, I hope that the law will be changed so that no one else ever has to go through what I’ve had to go through. To lose a hard earned pension after losing a spouse quickly to lung cancer is more than anyone should have to endure."

James G. Lynch worked for the NYS Department of Transportation for 25 years when he began the process to retire. He requested the paperwork to start the process, but fell ill before he could submit the forms. What was believed to be pneumonia, turned out to be lung cancer, and Mr. Lynch passed away on June 13, 2016, three days after signing his retirement paperwork in the presence of a notary. His wife, Judy Lynch, has been working tirelessly to resolve the retirement settlement. The paperwork that was signed turned out to be preliminary paperwork, and the actual retirement papers had never been given to Mr. Lynch. Due to regulations, he couldn't be granted a retirement date posthumously.