Opinion
15943 Index No. 150629/21 Case No. 2021–04339
05-17-2022
In the Matter of Paul CONNORS, Petitioner–Appellant, v. CITY OF NEW YORK et al., Respondents–Respondents.
Law Office of Stanley J. Silverstone, New City (Stanley J. Silverstone of counsel), for appellant. Sylvia O. Hinds–Radix, Corporation Counsel, New York (Geoffrey M. Stannard of counsel), for respondents.
Law Office of Stanley J. Silverstone, New City (Stanley J. Silverstone of counsel), for appellant.
Sylvia O. Hinds–Radix, Corporation Counsel, New York (Geoffrey M. Stannard of counsel), for respondents.
Mazzarelli, J.P., Oing, Moulton, Gonza´lez, Kennedy, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Frank P. Nervo, J.), entered July 21, 2021, to the extent appealed from as limited by the briefs, denying the petition brought pursuant to CPLR article 78 to expunge the May 6, 2019 disciplinary letter from petitioner's personnel file, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
As the four-month statute of limitations on article 78 proceedings began to run when the disciplinary letter was placed in petitioner's file, i.e., on May 6, 2019, and this proceeding was not commenced until, at the earliest, January 13, 2021, the court should not have considered the letter (see Hazen v. Board of Educ. of City School Dist. of City of N.Y., 75 A.D.3d 471, 906 N.Y.S.2d 14 [1st Dept. 2010], affd 17 N.Y.3d 728, 925 N.Y.S.2d 406, 949 N.E.2d 497 [2011] ).
Were judicial review of the letter not foreclosed, we would find that respondents’ determination had a rational basis, since it was founded upon credible complaints supported by witness statements (see Maas v. Cornell Univ., 94 N.Y.2d 87, 92, 699 N.Y.S.2d 716, 721 N.E.2d 966 [1999] ["administrative decisions of educational institutions involve the exercise of highly specialized professional judgment and these institutions are, for the most part, better suited (than courts) to make relatively final decisions concerning wholly internal matters"]).