25-b. Awards to non-residents: Non-resident compensation fund. 1. There is hereby created a fund to be known as the non-resident compensation fund. Whenever an award is made to or on behalf of alien dependents, non-residents of the United States, Canada or Newfoundland, or an award is made to a non-resident citizen of the United States, which calls for the payment of compensation or death benefits, or where there is outstanding an unpaid balance of compensation or death benefits payable to such non-resident, and it shall appear that the person or persons to whom the award has been made or any balance of such award is payable, would not have the full benefit or use or control of the money payable under such award, or where other special circumstances made it desirable that present payment of the award shall be withheld, the employer, or if insured, his insurance carrier, or any special fund liable for such payment, may, by order of the board, be required to pay to the comptroller of the state of New York all amounts then due or thereafter to become due under the terms of the award to such non-resident. The moneys so paid in shall be held by the comptroller in the non-residents compensation fund.
2. All computations for the commutation of any such award for payment into the said fund shall be made in accordance with the tables specified in section twenty-seven of this chapter.
3. The payment of the amount of any such award into the non-resident compensation fund shall constitute a complete discharge of the employer or insurance carrier from all liability for such award.
4. If at any time there shall be created by any act of the congress of the United States or by any lawful rule or regulation of the president any agency or fund for the safekeeping or custody of moneys belonging to or payable to any non-resident alien, and if such act or rule shall require the payment into such agency or fund of any moneys theretofore paid into the fund for foreign dependents, the board may make its findings and issue its order thereon directing the transfer of such moneys by the comptroller to such other agency or fund.
5. Any moneys so paid into such fund shall be held by the comptroller until the further order of the board. Whenever the board shall find that the reasons and conditions which made it desirable that payment into the fund be made have changed and that the cause for such withholding shall no longer exist, the board may make findings and issue its order thereon directing the payment without interest of the whole or any part thereof then due by the comptroller to the person or persons for whose benefit the award was made.
6. If the board, at any time, upon evidence presented to it, shall find that all or any part of the funds so deposited in such fund are not due and payable to the non-resident for whose benefit they were deposited, it shall direct the repayment of such amount so deposited, without interest, by the comptroller to the party required to make the deposit as aforesaid.
7. If no evidence shall be presented to the board of the present existence of any such non-resident within eight years from the date when the board has found that the precedent conditions set forth in paragraph one hereof have changed and that direct payments could be made to such person or persons if such person or persons are alive, it shall be presumed in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary, that such person or persons are non-existent and the board shall thereupon order the payment without interest of the amount deposited for the benefit of such person or persons to the party required to make such deposit as aforesaid, provided however, that thereafter such employer, carrier or fund receiving such repayment shall continue to be liable for any compensation subsequently found by the board to be due, notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter.
Last modified: February 3, 2019