A state employee should not have been fired for sending an “argumentative” email to a co-worker, even though he had been the subject of prior disciplinary action, the Commonwealth Court has ruled.

A three-judge panel of the court ruled Monday in Irani v. State Civil Service Commission (Department of Health) that an email a state Department of Health employee sent to another employee had not been combative, and was therefore not a sufficient basis for the employee's termination. The panel's decision reversed an order from the state Civil Service Commission sustaining the termination.

The health department noted that the employee, Afrid Irani, had been disciplined in March 2013 for sending insulting emails to employees at another department, which included repeatedly accusing them of incompetence, and contended that it had just cause to fire Irani for a May 2013 email Irani sent to the health department's Division of Contracts.