IN RE AMIRA BEATTY, pet-app, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, ET AL., res-res

652103/14. IN RE AMIRA BEATTY, pet-app, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, ET AL., res-res — Glass Krakower LLP, New York (Bryan D. Glass of counsel), for ap — Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, New York (Richard Dearing of counsel), for res — Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Margaret A. Chan, J.), entered July 20, 2015, which granted respondents’ cross motion to deny the petition seeking to vacate a penalty imposed in an arbitration award dated June 30, 2014, and dismissed the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 75, reversed, on the facts, without costs, the petition granted, and the matter is remanded to respondent New York City Department of Education (DOE) for imposition of a lesser penalty.

The penalty of termination of employment was imposed by a hearing officer upon petitioner, a special education home instruction teacher, based upon the hearing officer’s finding that petitioner had submitted time sheets falsely stating that she had provided instruction to a disabled student and inaccurately indicating that she had reported to certain DOE schools and libraries over a two-month period. Notwithstanding petitioner’s misconduct, under the circumstances presented here, the penalty of termination shocks our sense of fairness (see Matter of Pell v. Board of Educ. of Union Free School Dist. No. 1 of Towns of Scarsdale & Mamaroneck, Westchester County, 34 NY2d 222, 233 [1974]).