Court Affirms Decision to Deny Disability Benefits to Teacher

BOSTON - A Massachusetts appellate court ruled on Jan. 31 that there was sufficient evidence in the record to support a retirement board's decision to deny disability benefits to a music teacher who blamed her respiratory problems on mold in a school building. Narducci v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board, et al., No. 05-P-1356 (Mass. Ct. App.).

One of the three Massachusetts Court of Appeals justices wrote a strong dissent, however, faulting the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board for discounting supporting expert opinion from Nancy Narducci's physicians without any contrary expert testimony.

Narducci sought disability benefits in December 1995, complaining that …