Saylor v. West NY Bd. of Ed, A-0990-19

This is a reversal of an administrative law decision. (ALERT! MAN BITES DOG!)

Saylor was hired by the Board of Education as a business department secretary. She then was promoted to be the administrative assistant of the superintendent. After some time, the Board of Education got a new superintendent and decided they wanted to fire her.

The problem with this was that Saylor had by now acquired tenure if she was counted as a secretary in both jobs. But if the jobs were different classifications, she had no tenure. So the Board of Education's case depended on their being able to demonstrate, to a preponderance of the evidence, that a secretary and an administrative assistant are different things. Surprisingly, after a hearing, both the ALJ and the Commissioner agreed!

Because 'secretary' and 'administrative assistant' are synonyms, the Appellate Division, as can be expected, had quite a bit of fun with this, leading to this line in their opinion that you, as a trial attorney, never want to see:

Lest this be read as dumping on the trial attorney, remember that he or she convinced both the ALJ and the Commissioner that secretaries and administrative assistants are not the same. That's not easy to do!