IN RE: the Arbitration Between The BUFFALO TEACHERS FEDERATION (2009)

 Respondent appeals from an order in this CPLR article 75 proceeding that, inter alia, granted the petition seeking to vacate an arbitration award and denied its cross petition to confirm the award.   We reverse.   Contrary to petitioner's contention, the arbitration award was not irrational, inasmuch as it cannot be said that “there is no proof whatever to justify the award” (Matter of Buffalo Teachers Fedn., Inc. v. Board of Educ. of City School Dist. of City of Buffalo, 50 A.D.3d 1503, 1505, 855 N.Y.S.2d 775, lv. denied 11 N.Y.3d 708, 868 N.Y.S.2d 601, 897 N.E.2d 1085 [internal quotation marks omitted] ).   Indeed, “[a]n arbitration award must be upheld when the arbitrator ‘offer[s] even a barely colorable justification for the outcome reached’ ” (Wien & Malkin LLP v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 6 N.Y.3d 471, 479, 813 N.Y.S.2d 691, 846 N.E.2d 1201, cert. dismissed 548 U.S. 940, 127 S.Ct. 34, 165 L.Ed.2d 1012;  see also Buffalo Teachers Fedn., Inc., 50 A.D.3d at 1505, 855 N.Y.S.2d 775).   Here, the arbitrator determined that, although respondent violated its collective bargaining agreement with petitioner by failing to provide petitioner with written notice of disciplinary proceedings against a tenured teacher, no remedy was warranted because petitioner had actual notice of the proceedings before the teacher's employment was terminated.   Although the arbitration award referred to matters outside the record that was before the arbitrator, the arbitrator's conclusion that petitioner was aware of the disciplinary proceedings is not irrational because it is supported by documentary evidence that was in the record before the arbitrator (see Buffalo Teachers Fedn., Inc., 50 A.D.3d at 1505, 855 N.Y.S.2d 775).   In fact, the record contains a stipulation by the parties that petitioner's grievance on behalf of the tenured teacher was dated July 10, 2003 but that respondent did not terminate the employment of the tenured teacher until July 16, 2003.

It is hereby ORDERED that the order so appealed from is unanimously reversed on the law without costs, the petition is denied, the cross petition is granted and the arbitration award is confirmed.

MEMORANDUM: