(a) For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:

(1) AWARDING AUTHORITY. The State Board of Adjustment, created and existing pursuant to Article 4, Chapter 9 of Title 41.

(2) COMPENSATION. The money benefits paid on account of injury or death which occurred during the course of employment or activity as a peace officer or fireman and is in the nature of workers* compensation.

(3) DEPENDENT CHILD. An unmarried child under the age of 18 years, or one over the age of 18 who is physically or mentally incapacitated from earning.

(4) FIREMAN or FIREMEN. A member or members of a paid or volunteer fire department of a city, town, county, or other subdivision of the state or of a public corporation organized for the purpose of providing water, water systems, fire protection services, or fire protection facilities in the state; and shall include the chief, assistant chief, wardens, engineers, captains, firemen, and all other officers and employees of such departments who actually engage in fire fighting or in rendering first aid in case of drownings or asphyxiation at the scene of action.

(5) PEACE OFFICER. All sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables, municipal police officers, municipal policemen, state and town marshals, members of the highway patrol, state troopers, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Enforcement Division agents, enforcement officers of the Public Service Commission, revenue agents, and persons who are required by law to comply with the provisions of the Peace Officers* Minimum Standards, employees of the Board of Corrections, highway camp guards, law enforcement officers of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, all law enforcement officers of the Alabama Forestry Commission, livestock theft investigators of the Department of Agriculture and Industries, Capitol security guards, narcotic agents and inspectors of the State Board of Health, any other state, county, or municipal officer engaged in quelling a riot, or civil disturbance, and university police officers.

(b) For the purposes of this chapter, the following described persons shall be conclusively presumed to be wholly dependent:

(1) Wife, unless it be shown that she was voluntarily living apart from her husband at the time of his death, or unless it be shown that the husband was not in any way contributing to her support and had not in any way contributed to her support for more than 12 months next preceding the occurrence of the injury causing his death.

(2) Minor children under the age of 18 years and those over 18 if physically and mentally incapacitated from earning.

(3) Wife, child, husband, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sister, brother, mother-in-law, and father-in-law who were wholly supported by the deceased peace officer or fireman at the time of his or her death and for a reasonable period of time prior thereto shall be considered his or her dependents and payment of compensation may be made to them as hereinafter authorized.

If a paid or volunteer fireman, peace officer, certified police officer, or reserve law enforcement officer is killed while engaged in the performance of his or her duties and there are no dependents or partial dependents, then his or her mother or father shall be eligible for compensation and payment of compensation may be made to them.

(c) Any member of the class named in subdivision (3) of subsection (b) of this section who regularly derived part of his or her support from the earnings of the deceased peace officer or the deceased fireman, as the case may be, at the time of his or her death and for a reasonable time immediately prior thereto shall be considered his or her partial dependent and payment of compensation may be made to such partial dependent as hereinafter authorized.

In the event a peace officer, or a fireman, or a volunteer fireman, who is a member of an organized volunteer fire department registered with the Alabama Forestry Commission, is killed, either accidentally or deliberately, or dies as a result of injuries received while engaged in the performance of his duties, his dependents shall be entitled to compensation in the amount of $50,000.00 to be paid from the State Treasury as provided in Section 36-30-3, unless such death was caused by the willful misconduct of the officer or was due to his own intoxication or his willful failure or refusal to use safety appliances provided by his employer or his willful refusal or neglect to perform a statutory duty or any other willful violation of a law or his willful breach of a reasonable rule or regulation governing the performance of his duties or his employment of which rule or regulation he had knowledge. Any peace officer, or any fireman, or volunteer fireman whose death results proximately and within 10 years from an injury received while performing his duties shall, for the purposes of this article, be deemed to have been killed while in the performance of such duties. If the State Health Officer determines from all available evidence that a volunteer fireman, who is a member of an organized volunteer fire department registered with the Alabama Forestry Commission, has become totally disabled as a result of any injury such fireman received while engaged in the performance of his fire-fighting duties and said disability is likely to continue for more than 12 months from the date the injury is incurred, then such fireman shall be entitled to receive disability compensation in the amount of $50,000.00 to be paid from the State Treasury as provided in Section 36-30-3. The term total disability shall be interpreted to mean that the injured party is medically disabled to the extent that he cannot perform the duties of the job occupation or profession in which he was engaging at the time the injury was sustained. The State Health Officer may seek the assistance of any state agency in making the determination of disability and said state agencies shall cooperate with the State Health Officer in such regard. The State Health Officer shall render a decision within 30 days of the time a claim is filed. If such volunteer fireman disagrees with any officer, he may appeal such determination to the State Board of Adjustment in accordance with such board*s procedures for such appeals.

The compensation payable to surviving dependents of peace officers and firemen who are killed under the circumstances prescribed in Section 36-30-2 shall be paid to the persons entitled thereto without administration or to a guardian or such other person as the awarding authority may direct for the use of the persons entitled thereto, as follows:

(1) If the deceased peace officer or fireman leaves a dependent widow or a dependent husband and no other dependents or partial dependents, the total amount of the compensation provided for in Section 36-30-2 shall be paid to such widow or such husband.

(2) If the deceased peace officer or fireman leaves a dependent widow or a dependent husband and a dependent child or dependent children and no other dependents or partial dependents, then the total amount of the compensation provided for in Section 36-30-2 shall be paid to such widow or husband for the benefit of herself or himself and such child or children, or, in its discretion, the awarding authority may determine what portion of the compensation shall be applied for the benefit of such child or children and may order the same paid to a guardian and then order only the remainder of such compensation paid to such widow or husband.

(3) If the deceased peace officer or fireman leaves a dependent child or children and no dependent widow or dependent husband or other dependents or partial dependents, then such child or children shall be entitled to the total amount of the compensation authorized in Section 36-30-2, and such compensation shall be paid to a duly appointed guardian of such child or children or, in the discretion of the awarding authority, such sum may be paid to the probate judge of the county of residence of said child or children. Any probate judge who receives any moneys due any child or children under this article shall handle and administer all such funds in the manner prescribed in Sections 26-7-2 through 26-7-5.

(4) If the deceased peace officer or fireman leaves no dependent wife, dependent husband or dependent child or children but leaves other dependents or partial dependents, then such dependents and partial dependents jointly shall be entitled to the total amount of the compensation provided in Section 36-30-2, and subject to the limitations prescribed hereinbelow such compensation shall be paid to them in the amounts and manner ordered by the awarding authority.

(5) If a deceased peace officer or fireman leaves a dependent widow or a dependent husband and other dependents or partial dependents but no dependent child or children, then such widow or husband and the other dependents and partial dependents jointly shall be entitled to the total compensation provided in Section 36-30-2; and, subject to the limitations prescribed hereinbelow, such compensation shall be paid to such dependents in the proportions and in the manner ordered by the awarding authority; provided, however, that at least 50 percent of such compensation must be awarded to the dependent widow or dependent husband.

(6) If a deceased peace officer or fireman leaves a dependent widow or dependent husband and a dependent child or children and other dependents and partial dependents, then the awarding authority shall determine what portion of such compensation shall be paid to such widow or husband and child or children and, in its discretion, may order all such compensation paid to such widow or husband and child or children, but must provide that at least 70 percent thereof is paid to them.

(7) If a deceased peace officer or fireman leaves a dependent child or children and other dependents and partial dependents but no dependent widow or dependent husband, then the awarding authority shall determine what portion of such compensation such child or children are entitled to receive and, in its discretion, may order all such compensation awarded to such child or children, but must award at least 60 percent thereof to such child or children.

(8) If a deceased peace officer or fireman leaves no dependent wife, husband or child or children but leaves other dependents and partial dependents, the awarding authority shall determine what portion of such compensation each dependent and each partial dependent shall be entitled to receive, but such authority may not award to a partial dependent a greater percent of such compensation than the percent of the deceased peace officer*s or fireman*s average monthly income which was regularly contributed toward such partial dependent*s support for a reasonable time immediately prior to the death of such officer. In its discretion the awarding authority may award all of the compensation provided for in Section 36-30-2 to such total dependents of the deceased officer or fireman to the exclusion of partial dependents.

Compensation pursuant to this article for the death of a peace officer or a fireman shall be paid only to his dependents who at the time of such officer*s death were actually residents of the United States.

(a) All claims for compensation as provided in this article shall be presented to the awarding authority within one year from the date of the death of the peace officer or fireman on whom the claimant was dependent; else they are forfeited. All such claims shall be presented in the form prescribed by the awarding authority, and proof of the facts and circumstances of the peace officer*s or fireman*s death and the claimant*s relationship to and dependence upon such peace officer or fireman shall be made in the manner prescribed by the awarding authority.

(b) The awarding authority is hereby authorized to prescribe such forms and adopt such rules of evidence and procedure as it deems necessary or proper, not inconsistent with the provisions of this article, for the proper determination of all claims for compensation under this article.

The Board of Adjustment when serving as the awarding authority under this article shall hear and determine claims for compensation under this article in the same manner prescribed by law for the hearing and determination by such board of other claims against the state. If, when acting as the awarding authority, it determines that an applicant for compensation under this article is entitled thereto, it may adjudge and order that such compensation shall be paid out of the appropriation made by Acts 1966, Ex. Sess., No. 208, p. 256 to the Board of Adjustment for the purposes of this article and, if the funds in such appropriation have been exhausted, then out of any fund or funds appropriated to the Board of Adjustment for the purposes of Article 4, Chapter 9 of Title 41.

(a) This article shall not be construed to give any person a right of action against the State of Alabama in any court for the recovery of the compensation authorized by this article. This article shall not be construed to take away any right of action in any court under any other law for the recovery of damages for the death of a peace officer or a fireman; nor, in the event of the death of a peace officer or a fireman who was an employee of the State of Alabama at the time of the injury which proximately caused his death, shall this article be construed to take away the right or privilege of the surviving dependents of such peace officer or fireman to file a claim for damages with the State Board of Adjustment pursuant to any other law.

(b) The decision of the awarding authority shall be final and shall not be subject to appeal or review by any court.

When used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings, respectively, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) CITY. Any municipality of the state, regardless of its population; provided, however, that such term shall not include any municipality in any county having a population in excess of 600,000 according to the last federal decennial census.

(2) POLICEMAN. A person employed as a policeman or other law enforcement officer by a city.

(3) STATE TROOPER. State trooper, highway patrolman, crime investigation officer, driver*s license examiner or other police officer personnel of the Alabama Department of Public Safety or law enforcement officer employed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, those officers of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources designated as conservation enforcement officers.

(4) POLICEMAN*S OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE. Any condition or impairment of health caused by hypertension, heart disease or respiratory disease.

(5) DISABILITY. Disability to perform duties as a policeman or state trooper.

(6) BENEFIT. Any monetary allowance payable by a city or from a pension system established for the policemen of a city or, in the case of a state trooper, from the state Employees* Retirement System to a policeman or state trooper on account of his disability or to his dependents on account of his death, irrespective of whether the same is payable under a pension law of the state or under some other law of the state.

If a policeman or state trooper who qualifies for benefits under the provisions of this article suffers disability as a result of a policeman*s occupational disease, his disability shall be compensable the same as any service-connected disability under any law which provides benefits for policemen of such municipality, or, if a state trooper, under the state Employees* Retirement System, the same as if injured in the line of duty. If a policeman or state trooper who qualifies for benefits under the provisions of this article dies as a result of a policeman*s occupational disease, his death shall be compensable to the same extent as the death of a policeman or state trooper killed in the line of duty; provided, that this article shall not apply to any municipality which has elected to be covered by the workers* compensation laws of this state.

The provisions of this article shall apply to policemen who, upon entering the service of the city as policemen, have successfully passed a physical examination which failed to reveal any evidence of a policeman*s occupational disease and who have completed at least three years* service as a policeman, provided a physical examination was required at the time of entry into service, and shall apply to a state trooper who, upon entering the service of the state as a state trooper, successfully passed a physical examination which failed to reveal any evidence of a policeman*s occupational disease and who has completed no less than three years* service as a state trooper.

If a physical examination was not required at the time of entry into service, a policeman or state trooper who has had at least three years* continuous service as a policeman or state trooper next preceding September 8, 1967, shall be deemed eligible for benefits under the provisions of this article.