The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision [DOCCS] issued a notice of suspension and discipline to one of its employees [Petitioner] alleging that, among other things, Petitioner falsely held herself out as a police officer, executed an unauthorized traffic stop and arrested a motorist without cause.
Petitioner grieved the 15 charges of misconduct DOCCS filed against her in accordance with the terms of the relevant collective bargaining agreement between DOCCS and the Public Employees Federation, Petitioner's collective bargaining unit representative. Following an arbitration hearing, the arbitrator rejected Petitioner's version of the incident as not credible, found Petitioner guilty of seven misconduct charges arising from the "motorist incident" but declined to decide the remaining eight charges, Charges 8 through and including Charge 15, stemming from allegedly inaccurate timesheets and vehicle logs.
After reviewing Petitioner's personnel record, the arbitrator offered Petitioner a choice of penalties:
(A) no reinstatement with an award of some back pay; or
(B) reinstatement with no back pay for the 14-month suspension, loss of eight months of accruals, and completion of a five-day course on the use of force or anger management.
Petitioner chose option (B), but DOCCS refused to reinstate Petitioner.
Petitioner commenced a CPLR Article 75 proceeding to confirm the award and DOCCS cross-moved to vacate so much of the award "as assumed — rather than found — that [Petitioner] was not responsible for charges 8 through 15. Further, DOCCS argued that Petitioner's reinstatement violated public policy.
Supreme Court granted DOCCS' cross-motion, concluding that strong public policies against "unauthorized use of force, unlawful arrests and impersonating a police officer" could not be reconciled with an award reinstating Plaintiff.
The Appellate Division affirmed the Supreme Court's order partially vacating the award without reaching the merits of Petitioner's public-policy argument, reasoning that the arbitrator should determine the outstanding misconduct charges first and remitted the matter to the arbitrator.
On remittal, the arbitrator found Petitioner not guilty of charges 8 through 15 in a supplemental award and issued the same penalty options.
Petitioner again chose reinstatement and DOCCS again refused to reinstate Petitioner. DOCCS and Respondent again appealed. Supreme Court agreed with Respondent, vacated the penalty and remitted the matter to a new arbitrator for a determination of a "different penalty". DOCCS appealed the Supreme Court's ruling.
The Appellate Division, noting that "A court may vacate an arbitrator's award only on grounds stated in CPLR 7511 (b)", ruled that "Among other circumstances, vacatur is permitted where an arbitrator directs an award that 'violates a strong public policy'", noting that "An arbitration award may only be vacated on public policy grounds 'where a court can conclude, without engaging in any extended factfinding or legal analysis [(1)] that a law prohibits, in an absolute sense, the particular matters to be decided, or [(2)] that the award itself violates a well-defined constitutional, statutory or common law of this State'".
Observing that there was "no contention that the law prohibited the arbitrator from deciding Petitioner's guilt and penalty under the CBA", the Appellate Division said that its review in the instant appeal focuses on whether "the final result creates an explicit conflict with other laws and their attendant policy concerns". [Emphasis supplied in the decision.]
Finding that DOCCS had not demonstrated such a conflict exists between constitutional, statutory and decisional law and the result of the arbitration award — reinstating Petitioner after a 14-month unpaid suspension, partial loss of accruals and completion of a five-day training and that the legal authorities cited by DOCCS set out generally applicable law, but "the public policy considerations each authority embodies are too general to support vacating the arbitrator's penalty."
Concluding that DOCCS had not met its "very heavy burden" in seeking to have the arbitrator's award judicially overturned on public policy grounds, the Appellate Division said it was "constrained to confirm the award".
Click HERE to access the Appellate Divisions decision posted on the Internet.