Exhaustion of administrative remedies

Exhaustion of administrative remedies
Matter of Castillo v Town of Oyster Bay, 2010 NY Slip Op 01483, Decided on February 16, 2010, Appellate Division, Second Department

Christopher Castillo was charged with misconduct by his employer, the Town of Oyster Bay Department of Public Works. The hearing officer found that the Department had proven the charges filed against Castillo and recommended that he be terminated from his position. The appointing authority accepted the hearing officer’s findings and recommendation and dismissed Castillo.

Castillo’s CPLR Article petition appealing his termination Supreme Court dismissed his petition on the grounds that he had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.

The Appellate Division affirmed the Supreme Court’s ruling. It also rejected Castillo’s claim that any effort on his part to “exhaust his administrative remedies” would have been futile because he improperly raised the argument for the first time in his appeal to the Appellate Division.

NYPPL Comments: As an exception to applying the Doctrine of the Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies, the general rule is that an individual is not required to exhaust the available administrative remedy where such action would constitute an exercise in futility. Typically the courts apply this exception in situations where it determines that the administrative decision "is a foregone conclusion."

In addition, the Court of Appeals has held that the exhaustion rule is not inflexible and in Watergate II Apartments v Buffalo Sewer, 46 NY2d 52, indicated that the rule need not be followed where an agency's action is challenged as either unconstitutional or wholly beyond its grant of power.

Another exception to the general rule is set out in Van Tassel v County of Orange, 204 A.D.2d 560. In Van Tassel the Appellate Division ruled that an individual is not required to exhaust the available administrative remedy, in this instance the arbitration procedure set out in a collective bargaining agreement, where the subject matter of the complaint "falls outside the scope of the parties' agreement to arbitrate.”