Agency for Investigation & Detection, Inc. v. Department of State

25 A.D.2d 738, 269 N.Y.S.2d 168, 1966 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4435

Opinions

Judgment dismissing article 78 proceeding affirmed, with $50 costs and disbursements to respondent. The petitioner, the holder of a private investigator’s license, and its agents, in the course of a raid to obtain evidence in a divorce ease, acted in a shocking and most callous disregard of law and the rights of individuals. There was evidence that the entry into the private apartment was obtained by breaking a chain lock, and that, then, the raiding party, including the employees of the licensee, pushed, shoved and committed acts amounting to assaults upon the persons of the occupants of the apartment; and, further, that bottles containing about $50 worth of perfume were broken by the intruders. In view of the outrageous conduct of the investigators and the general lawlessness of their acts, the penalty of a two months’ suspension is not “so disproportionate to the offense * * * as to be shocking to one’s sense of fairness” and, thus, to warrant an interference with the discretion reposed in the respondent. (See CPLR 7803, subd. 3; Matter of Stolz v. Board of Regents, 4 A D 2d 361, 364; Matter of McGinnis’ Rest. v. Rohan, 6 A D 2d 115, affd. 6 N Y 2d 770; Matter of Mitthauer v. Patterson, 8 N Y 2d 37.)

Concur — Breitel, J. P., Stevens and Eager, JJ.; McNally and Steuer, JJ,, dissent in part in the following memorandum by