New York Public Personnel Law: Disciplinary suspension without pay tolled while individual incarcerated

November 16, 2010

Disciplinary suspension without pay tolled while individual incarcerated

Disciplinary suspension without pay tolled while individual incarcerated
Manning v Warsaw CSD, CEd 14071

The Warsaw Central School District served disciplinary charges against a tenured teacher, William Manning, Jr., related to his alleged operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol.

Following a disciplinary hearing and an appeal, on November 22, 1994 former Commission of Education Sobol issued a decision and imposed a penalty of suspension without pay for two years. The decision was sustained by a State Supreme Court justice [Manning v Sobol, August 7, 1995, not officially reported].

Manning, however, was incarcerated in the Wyoming County jail on July 19, 1994. Because he was “unavailable” to work, the district changed his pay status from suspension with pay pending resolution of the Section 3020-a action to suspension without pay effective July 19, 1994.

Released from prison and claiming that his two-year suspension without pay commenced on November 22, 1994, Manning advised the district that he intended to return to work on November 22, 1996. The District said that the two-year suspension period commenced on March 21, 1995, when he was released from prison and therefore he could not return to work earlier than March 21, 1997. Manning appealed.

Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills said that the two-year suspension imposed by former Commissioner Sobol commenced when Manning was released from incarceration since allowing the suspension to run concurrently with his incarceration “nullifies a portion of the suspension, since [Manning] could not work during that period in any event.”

The Commissioner rejected Manning’s claim that he was entitled to back salary from November 22, 1996, holding that to do so would abrogate the degree of discipline deemed appropriate by former Commissioner Sobol.
NYPPL

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