A retired FDNY EMS captain who received a World Trade Center disability retirement has filed suit against the City of New York and the FDNY, claiming the department has refused to pay him nearly $96,000 for approximately 1,952 hours of accrued annual leave.

Captain Mordechai Z. Goldfeder filed the action in Kings County Supreme Court against the FDNY, Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, and the City of New York. The suit includes an Article 78 challenge to the FDNY’s handling of his accrued leave, as well as disability discrimination claims under the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws.

Captain Goldfeder began working as an EMT for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation in 1994. When EMS was merged into the FDNY in 1996, he became an FDNY employee. He was promoted to EMS lieutenant in 2004 and EMS captain in 2013.

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Captain Goldfeder worked at the World Trade Center disaster site from approximately September 2001 through February 2002, providing patient care to first responders and others involved in the rescue and recovery operation. He claims that as a result of his exposure at Ground Zero, he developed several disabling conditions, including GERD, chronic rhinosinusitis, obstructive sleep apnea, asthma, and mental-health-related conditions.

Captain Goldfeder stopped physically working on May 15, 2025, when the FDNY placed him on World Trade Center/September 11 unlimited paid sick leave. He had applied for a World Trade Center disability retirement in March 2025, and in March 2026 the NYCERS Medical Board recommended approval of the application.

At the time his retirement was being processed, FDNY payroll records reportedly showed that Captain Goldfeder had approximately 1,952 hours and 51 minutes of annual leave, 244 hours of sick leave, eight hours of floating-holiday leave, and a limited amount of compensatory time. He estimates the annual leave alone was worth at least $95,964.

The central dispute concerns what happened to that leave when Captain Goldfeder’s disability retirement was approved.

According to the petition, Captain Goldfeder met with FDNY Human Resources on April 28, 2026, and was told that because he was a non-managerial employee, he could receive the benefit of his accrued leave only by remaining on paid leave status for approximately ten months while exhausting the balance. He repeatedly asked the FDNY to identify the law, regulation, agreement, or policy requiring that approach.

On May 6, 2026, Deputy Commissioner for Human Capital Barbara Dannenberg reportedly advised Captain Goldfeder that the applicable Citywide Agreement provided for terminal leave and that the FDNY had no discretion concerning how accrued leave was paid to non-managerial employees. Captain Goldfeder claims Deputy Commissioner Dannenberg did not identify a provision requiring him to exhaust the leave while remaining on payroll or prohibiting a lump-sum payment.

The problem, according to Captain Goldfeder, was that the FDNY simultaneously took the position that he could not remain on the payroll because his disability retirement had been approved.

The petition alleges that during a May 19 telephone conversation, Deputy Chief Man Wai Law acknowledged that the FDNY had not identified a document either requiring or prohibiting the requested payment. Deputy Chief Law reportedly told Captain Goldfeder that he nevertheless had to be released from service and removed from the FDNY payroll immediately because his disability retirement had been approved.

Captain Goldfeder characterizes the two positions as irreconcilable: he had to remain on the payroll for approximately ten months to receive the benefit of his accrued leave, but his disability retirement required him to immediately leave the payroll.

As the petition explains:

• “Petitioner was required to remain on the payroll to receive the benefit of his accrued annual leave, but was simultaneously prohibited from remaining on the payroll because his disability-retirement application had been approved.”

The dispute also involved Captain Goldfeder’s World Trade Center sick leave. He alleges that on May 22, 2026, the FDNY denied his request to continue that leave and retroactively changed his status to leave without pay effective May 15. According to the petition, that temporarily left him without either wages or pension payments because NYCERS was still awaiting final payroll information from the FDNY.

Captain Goldfeder complained to Deputy Chief Law, who allegedly told him that World Trade Center sick leave was limited to one year. The FDNY ultimately restored Captain Goldfeder to paid status for May 15 through May 27 by charging the time against his regular accrued sick leave. Captain Goldfeder contends his WTC sick leave was unlimited and that the FDNY therefore improperly depleted his regular sick-leave bank.

Captain Goldfeder retired effective May 27, 2026, with approximately 1,951 hours and 51 minutes of annual leave remaining. The FDNY has not paid him the value of that leave in a lump sum.

The petition alleges that neither the applicable Citywide Agreement nor the City’s leave regulations require forfeiture of accrued annual leave under these circumstances. Captain Goldfeder also points to provisions that permit lump-sum payments of accrued annual leave in other circumstances, including certain separations from employment and World Trade Center-related situations.

Captain Goldfeder’s Article 78 claims allege that the FDNY’s refusal to pay him for the accrued leave was arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and unlawful.

His state and city disability discrimination claims contend that nondisabled employees are permitted to remain on the payroll and exhaust accrued annual leave before separation, while his disability retirement prevented him from doing so. He claims his requests for a lump-sum payment or another method of receiving the value of his leave constituted requests for a reasonable accommodation.

Under the New York City Human Rights Law, Captain Goldfeder also alleges the FDNY failed to engage in the required cooperative dialogue concerning his accommodation request.

Captain Goldfeder is seeking an order directing the FDNY to pay his accrued annual and other leave in a lump sum, along with compensatory damages for emotional distress, attorneys’ fees and costs, punitive damages, and other relief.

Oddly enough, Captain Goldfeder did not include a count under New York’s wage theft/wage payment framework (New York Labor Law §§ 190, 198, and 198-c), under which “wages” can include amounts due upon separation, including benefits or wage supplements that have vested and are payable under an agreement or established policy. An allegation that FDNY wrongfully withheld nearly $96,000 in accrued leave upon retirement could potentially implicate the New York wage-theft/wage payment law. That law also carries criminal consequences… so a bureaucrat who shrugs and tells an employee like Captain Goldfeder “you will have to sue to get what we owe” you may create some problems for the city that are beyond what he/she contemplated.

And no… Captain Goldfeder is not related to Chief Goldfeder.