IN RE: Salvatore MUCE (2025)

Judgment (denominated an order), Supreme Court, Bronx County (Andrew J. Cohen, J.), entered on or about July 18, 2024, which denied the petition to annul respondents’ determination, dated July 14, 2023, terminating petitioner's employment as a plumber with respondent Mario Eugenio de Hostos Community College (Hostos), and granting respondents’ cross-motion to dismiss the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the cross-motion denied, petition reinstated, and the matter remanded to Supreme Court for further proceedings.

As an initial matter, the article 78 petition is timely because it was filed on November 14, 2023, or within four months of the final determination terminating petitioner's employment (CPLR 217;  see Matter of Farca v. Board of Educ. of the City Sch. Dist. of the City of N.Y., 220 A.D.3d 567, 567, 198 N.Y.S.3d 679 [1st Dept. 2023], lv denied 41 N.Y.3d 909, 2024 WL 3032535 [2024]).

Respondents sought to dismiss this article 78 petition at the pre-answer stage on the ground that the petition fails to state a cause of action.  Supreme Court should have denied respondents’ cross-motion as petitioner provides a factual predicate for his claim.