COULD BE FIRED FOR “ANY OR NO REASON”
After she was fired from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, A.B. filed a special proceeding [pursuant to CPLR Article 78] to challenge her termination. But after the New York County Supreme Court denied her request for relief and dismissed the litigation, A.B. appealed.
On its review, the Appellate Division, First Department, noted that a “probationary employee” can be fired for “any or no reason,” as long as it does not involve “bad faith,” a “constitutionally impermissible purpose,” or otherwise violated the law. In this instance, since A.B. was unable to show the existence of any of these elements to the court's satisfaction, and because the City proffered a “termination memo” which documented “several performance failures,” the AD1 allowed the case’s dismissal to stand.
Think they got fired up over that?
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DECISION