Extending an eligible list

Extending an eligible list
Doyle v NYC Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services, 261 A.D.2d 110

Thomas Doyle brought an Article 78 action to compel the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services to extend a civil service eligible list beyond its “maximum life.” The Appellate Division dismissed Doyle’s petition.

Noting that Doyle asked relief in the nature of mandamus (i.e., an order that a responsible official or agency perform a required duty), the Appellate Division said that mandamus is available only to compel a nondiscretionary governmental act, citing Matter of Altamore v Barrios-Paoli, 90 NY2d 378.

Here, said the court, Doyle is demanding that a civil service eligible list be extended. Because there is no question that the extension of a civil service eligible list is a discretionary act on the part of the administrator charged with maintaining such eligible lists, the court said it could not order the city to extend the list.

The Appellate Division said that there was no evidence that Department’s determination to let the list expire at the end of its maximum statutory term was arbitrary and capricious or made in bad faith.

As set out in Section 56 of the Civil Service Law, the duration of an eligible list shall be for at least one year but shall not extend beyond four years.

However, Section 56.3 provides that in the event an individual whose “disqualification has been reversed” or whose rank on the eligible list has been “adjusted by administrative or judicial action”, the candidate’s name is to be placed on the relevant eligible list[s] “for a period of time equal to the period of disqualification or for the period the application [sic] has been improperly ranked, up to a maximum period of one year or until the expiration of the eligibility list, whichever is longer.

If the list expires before the individual has had his or her name “restoration to the eligible list,” for at least one year, the individual’s name is to be placed on a “special list” for the period remaining; if the list expires before being “restored,” the individual’s name is to be placed on a special eligible list “for a length of time equal to the restored period of time not to exceed a maximum of one year.”
NYPPL