The Arbitration Between South Orange-Town Central School District

106 A.D.2d 642, 483 N.Y.S.2d 434, 1984 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 21613

This text of 106 A.D.2d 642 (The Arbitration Between South Orange-Town Central School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Arbitration Between South Orange-Town Central School District, 106 A.D.2d 642, 483 N.Y.S.2d 434, 1984 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 21613 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

In a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 75 to stay arbitration, petitioner, South Orangetown Central School District (district), appeals from so much of a judgment of [643]*643the Supreme Court, Rockland County (Meehan, J.), entered February 25, 1983, as directed it to resume payment of respondent Hawley’s salary and referred to arbitration the issue of mitigation of damages.

Judgment modified, on the law, by deleting the provision directing the parties to proceed to arbitration and substituting therefor a provision staying arbitration. As so modified, judgment affirmed, insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements.

On or about January 27,1982, Jack Hawley, a tenured junior high school science teacher, was charged with misconduct pursuant to section 3020-a of the Education law. On or about February 1, 1982, Hawley was suspended and told not to report to school during the pendency of the section 3020-a tenure hearing to be held on the charges. That hearing commenced on April 19, 1982. The district paid him his full salary until on or about June 9, 1982 (see Matter of Jerry v Board of Educ., 35 NY2d 534). On June 9, 1982, however, the district demanded pay records pertaining to purported outside employment earnings of Hawley during the suspension period. Upon receiving those pay records, the district, on or about July 13, 1982, deducted from Hawley’s salary checks an offset of $2,665 for moneys earned by Hawley during the suspension period.

In or about October, 1982 Hawley instituted a CPLR article 78 proceeding, inter alia, to recover the amount of the $2,665 offset.

A further issue then arose when the district suspended the payment of his salary on the theory that he was obligated to mitigate his damages and was not doing so since he no longer maintained any outside employment. Hawley then moved, within the pending article 78 proceeding, for a preliminary injunction.

While the article 78 proceeding was pending, the respondent teachers’ association “on behalf of Mr. Jack Hawley”, on November 5, 1982, served a written notice of grievance upon the district, and on or about December 10, 1982, served a written demand for arbitration. The demand stated that “[t]he district violated Articles II, V, VI and XIV by beginning to withhold a portion of Jack Hawley’s salary and benefits in June, 1982 and since September, 1982 entirely withholding his salary”. We note that articles II, V, VI and XIV of the contract are not contained in the record; only articles XVI and XVII are included.

By order to show cause dated December 29, 1982, which contained a temporary stay of the arbitration, the district then instituted the instant proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 75 to [644]*644stay the arbitration. The district’s papers contended, inter alia, that by instituting his article 78 proceeding, Hawley had elected his remedy and that “the issue of mitigation is an important one that merits the consideration of the court and not an arbitrator whose decision is subject to limited review by a court of law” (emphasis supplied).

In the article 78 proceeding, Special Term rendered its determination in a judgment entered January 10, 1983. It held, inter alia, that the district had the right to offset Hawley’s outside earnings and that Hawley was obligated to mitigate his damages. The question of whether Hawley was or was not mitigating his damages was referred to arbitration. Hawley appealed from stated portions of that judgment.

In the proceeding to stay the arbitration, Special Term (Meehan, J.), in the judgment appealed from, entered February 25, 1983, inter alia, denied the application citing the judgment entered January 10, 1983 in the article 78 proceeding.

After the district served its notice of appeal from the judgment entered February 25, 1983, Hawley’s appeal from the judgment entered January 10, 1983 in the article 78 proceeding was decided by this court on December 12, 1983 (Matter of Hawley v South Orangetown Cent. School Dist., 98 AD2d 749, app dsmd 62 NY2d 802). In our decision, this court held: “It is uncontested that prior to his suspension, petitioner had a long history of maintaining other employment in addition to his teaching position. Clearly, then, the nonteaching positions held by petitioner during nonschool hours while he was suspended cannot be said to have been undertaken wholly as substitute positions. Rather, those jobs were, at least partially, intended to be supplemental in nature. The distinction we make between supplemental and substitute employment was implicitly recognized by the Court of Appeals in Matter of Lezette v Board of Educ. (35 NY2d 272), when it determined that wages received from summer employment positions are not to be deducted from a teacher’s back salary during a suspension period * * * However, on this record, we cannot say that all of petitioner’s outside earnings were supplemental * * * Accordingly, the matter must be remitted to Special Term so that it may examine petitioner’s supplemental employment history and determine, in accordance with the principles stated in this memorandum, what portion, if any, of petitioner’s outside earnings during the period of suspension may be treated as substitute earnings”.

On the mitigation issue this court held: “In addition, Special Term erred in holding that petitioner was under a duty to mitigate his damages by seeking alternate employment. The [645]*645Court of Appeals in Matter of Jerry v Board of Educ. (supra), merely required that outside earnings, if any, should be deducted from a teacher’s wrongfully withheld salary during suspension. The court did not hold that the suspended employee was under any duty to seek alternate employment during this period. Furthermore, ordinary contract principles relating to the mitigation of damages do not automatically apply to the situation at bar. The suspended petitioner had a statutory right to his full salary during the period of suspension and was not required to take any action to guarantee his receipt of the full amount of his salary (see, generally, Sinicropi v Bennett, 92 AD2d 309, affd 60 NY2d 918)”. Having concluded that Hawley was not under a duty to mitigate, this court stated with respect to the right of Special Term to refer to arbitration the factual issues with respect to mitigation (pp 749-750): “In view of this resolution of the aforesaid issues, it is unnecessary for us to determine on the merits the propriety of Special Term’s determination that the factual question of petitioner’s duty to mitigate his damages should be resolved by arbitration”.

Thus it can be seen that as a result of Hawley’s appeal, the district obtained the procedural relief it had sought on its motion to stay arbitration, viz., to hold Hawley to the judicial forum he had initially chosen and to require that the courts — rather than an arbitrator — adjudicate the issue of mitigation of damages because “the issue of mitigation of damages is an important one that merits the consideration of the court and not an arbitrator whose decision is subject to limited review by a court of law”.

On the substantive question of duty to mitigate, however, this court found in Hawley’s favor on his appeal. Accordingly, as we noted therein, there is no longer a mitigation issue for the arbitrator to decide and there is no need or basis for an arbitration on that issue. On the offset

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Related

Mtr. Lezette v. Bd. of Educ., Hudson
319 N.E.2d 189 (New York Court of Appeals, 1974)
MATTER OF SINICROPI v. Bennett
458 N.E.2d 1257 (New York Court of Appeals, 1983)
Jerry v. Board of Education
324 N.E.2d 106 (New York Court of Appeals, 1974)
East Ramapo Central School District v. East Ramapo Teachers Ass'n
91 A.D.2d 969 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1983)
Sinicropi v. Bennett
92 A.D.2d 309 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1983)
Hawley v. South Orangetown Central School District
98 A.D.2d 749 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
106 A.D.2d 642, 483 N.Y.S.2d 434, 1984 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 21613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-arbitration-between-south-orange-town-central-school-district-nyappdiv-1984.