Court dismisses petitioner's human rights complaint for failure to show a "triable issue of fact"

The Appellate Division held that a New York State public employer met its prima facie burden of showing that there were no triable issues of fact that would support plaintiff's petition alleging age discrimination within the meaning of the New York City Human Rights Law (Administrative Code of City of NY §8-107[1][a]) or the New York State Human Rights Law (Executive Law §296[1][a]), as there was no indication that the employer's actions concerning plaintiff's continued employment at the employer's facility were motivated by plaintiff's age.

Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's decision.

 

Invoking the "law enforcement exemption" in response to a Freedom of Information request

Citing Madeiros v New York State Educ. Dept., 30 NY3d 67, the Appellate Division held that the fact that the custodian of records demanded under color of New York State's Freedom of Information Law chose to task an outside law firm with investigation of employee complaints does not mean that custodian had no reasonable basis for invoking the law enforcement exemption as the exemption "does not apply solely to records compiled for law enforcement purposes in connection with criminal investigations."

Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's decision.

Retired police officer's application for a "good guy letter" denied

The New York City Police Department refused to give a retired NYC police officer a certificate of service, also known as a "good guy letter," without which the retiree could not obtain a retired officer handgun license. The Appellate Division rejected the retiree's challenge to the Department's decision explaining that the retiree's action was [1] time barred and [2] the issuance of a retired officer handgun license was a matter of discretion and thus no hearing was required.

Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's ruling.

Exercising discretionary authority by the Appellate Division has limits

In an appeal involving an Article 78 proceeding, the Appellate Division ruled that it had "no discretionary authority" to "reach ... an unpreserved issue in the interest of justice". 

Click HERE to access the Appellate Divisions ruling.

New York Public Personnel Law handbooks

The Discipline Book - A concise guide to disciplinary actions involving public officers and employees in New York State set out as an e-book. For more about this electronic handbook, click HERE.

A Reasonable Disciplinary Penalty Under the Circumstances- The text of this publication focuses on determining an appropriate disciplinary penalty to be imposed on an employee in the public service in instances where the employee has been found guilty of misconduct or incompetence. For more information click HERE.

Disability Benefits for fire, police and other public sector personnel - an e-book focusing on retirement for disability under the NYS Employees' Retirement System, the NYS Teachers' Retirement System, General Municipal Law Sections 207-a/207-c and similar statutes providing benefits to employees injured both "on-the-job" and "off-the-job." For more information about this e-book click HERE.

The Layoff, Preferred List and Reinstatement Manual -This e-book reviews the relevant laws, rules and regulations, and selected court and administrative decisions. Click HERE for more information.