Opinion
December 21, 2000.
Determination of respondent New York City Housing Authority dated November 10, 1998, which terminated petitioner's public housing tenancy on the ground of nondesirability, unanimously modified, on the facts, to vacate the penalty of termination, the matter remanded to respondent for imposition of a lesser penalty, and the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this Court by order of the Supreme Court, New York County [Paula Omansky, J.]), entered September 24, 1999), otherwise disposed of by confirming the remainder of the determination, without costs.
Andrew Liebhafsky, for petitioner.
Steven J. Rappaport, for respondents.
Before: Sullivan, P.J., Wallach, Lerner, Andrias, Buckley, JJ.
While substantial evidence supports respondent's finding that petitioner "physically confronted" and "accosted" respondent's representative during an inspection of petitioner's apartment for repairs, and while such certainly is a very serious breach of respondent's rules, the penalty of termination shocks our sense of fairness. As the Hearing Officer noted in urging respondent to exercise "self restraint" in imposing a penalty, petitioner experienced "considerable frustration" because of respondent's representative's refusal to acknowledge that her apartment was in almost constant need of repair, that petitioner suffered more distress as a result of the altercation than did respondent's representative, who was not seriously injured and received no medical attention, and that petitioner has had an otherwise blemish-free 24-year tenure in public housing (cf., Matter of Spand v. Franco, 242 A.D.2d 210, lv denied, 92 N.Y.2d 802; Matter of Milton v. Christian, 99 A.D.2d 984). Accordingly, we remand the matter for imposition of a lesser penalty.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.