Gallagher v City of New York, 307 A.D.2d 76
May the state or a municipal civil service commission authorize a promotion examination for an entrance level position? This was the significant issue explored by Justice Solomon in the Gallagher case.
Kevin E. Gallagher, as president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, sued the City of New York's Department of Citywide Administrative Services [DCAS] in an effort to bar the use of a "special promotional list" in place of, or ahead of, a list established by open competitive examination for appointment to New York City firefighter positions.
According to the decision, DCAS held two identical written examinations for firefighter on February 27, 1999. One examination, No. 7514, was open only to employees of the New York City Fire Department [FDNY] and was treated as a "promotion examination." The other, No. 7029, was open to members of the general public who met age and other eligibility requirements. Essentially, only the individuals transferred into FDNY from the Emergency Medical Service of the City's Health and Hospital Corporation were eligible for examination 7514.
DCAS established an eligible list composed exclusively of candidates who passed examination 7513 and a number of appointments were made from that list. No candidate who only took examination 7029 was appointed as a fire fighter.
Gallagher asked the court to require the DCAS to "merge" the two lists and make all future appointments from this merged list on the theory that since the position of firefighter was an entrance level position, providing for a "promotion examination" for that title violated the Civil Service Law.
Justice Solomon noted that the Court of Appeals in Murray v McNamara, 303 NY 140, said that:
while it was mindful of the legislative policy embodied in then Civil Service Law Section 16 (now Section 52), favoring the filling of vacancies through promotions, under Article 5, section 6 of the Constitution, "the right to appointment is entitled to the same protection as the right to promotion ...."
Essentially the Court of Appeals ruled that "promotion examinations may be held only where the employees sought to be promoted have passed an open examination for a lower grade in the type of work involved in the position to which promotion is sought."
In Beloten v Diamond, 276 AD2d 438, the Appellate Division, First Department, with specific reference to employees of the FDNY in titles that were carried over from EMS, held that "the position of firefighter is an 'entry level' position," and, prior to the transfer of EMS to the FDNY, there could be no "promotion" to that position.
After weighting these several decisions and the arguments made by the parties, Justice Solomon decided that "FDNY shall make appointments of candidates for the position of firefighter from a merged list encompassing both the promotional and open lists." In the words of Justice Solomon:
Fairness dictates this result because the examinations were identical, and the determination by DCAS to exhaust the promotional list before appointing candidates from the open list was arbitrary and capricious....
The Court than prohibited FDNY from making any future firefighter appointments from other than the merged list.
