Labor & Employment Law

Test applied by the courts in resolving challenges to a probationary termination

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Test applied by the courts in resolving challenges to a probationary termination
Matter of Dorita L. James v Joel Klein, 43 A.D.3d 764, Appellate Division, First Department

Dorita L. James was terminated from her position as a probationary assistant principal. She sued, but the Appellate Division unanimously ruled that her challenge to her dismissal from her position was time-barred as she had not filed her petition for judicial review within four months of the effective date of her probationary termination.

Further, said the court, the appropriate standard of review to be applied in this case was whether the termination determination was arbitrary and capricious and not whether her dismissal from her position while serving as a probationer was supported by substantial evidence.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).