Brohman v. NEW YORK CONVENTION CENTER OPERATING CORPORATION

Decision Date09 April 2002
Citation740 N.Y.S.2d 312,293 A.D.2d 299
CourtNew York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
PartiesSHELDON BROHMAN, Appellant,<BR>v.<BR>NEW YORK CONVENTION CENTER OPERATING CORPORATION, Respondent, et al., Defendant.

Concur — Williams, P.J., Saxe, Buckley, Ellerin and Rubin, JJ.

In pertinent part, Civil Service Law § 75-b (2) (b) requires that prior to disclosing information to a governmental body, a public employee "shall have made a good faith effort to provide the appointing authority or his or her designee the information to be disclosed and shall provide the appointing authority or designee a reasonable time to take appropriate action." The "appointing authority" is the "officer, commission or body having the power of appointment to subordinate positions" (Civil Service Law § 2 [9]). Here, that would be the Board of Directors of defendant New York Convention Center Operating Corporation, a public benefit corporation (see, Public Authorities Law §§ 2562, 2563 [8]); defendant's designee would be its president and chief executive officer at the time of the alleged improper governmental actions, a named defendant herein who allegedly committed such actions, but against whom plaintiff has discontinued, and who, the record shows, was the only person to exercise the authority to hire and fire during his tenure with defendant. Plaintiff admittedly had no communications with either defendant's Board of Directors or its president and chief operating officer, but argues that his communications with one of defendant's vice-presidents satisfied the pre-disclosure notice requirement. Assuming in plaintiff's favor that the vice-president can be considered defendant's designee, plaintiff's argument is otherwise undermined by his own deposition testimony and opposing affidavit, which show that his communications with the vice-president were not for the purpose of informing defendant of its president's improper governmental actions, but rather that he used the vice-president as a "friend and a soundboard," went to him for "advice," did not ask him to put an end to the alleged improprieties, and had a mutual understanding with him that their conversations would "absolutely" go no further.

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6 cases
  • Zielonka v. Town of Sardinia
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • August 8, 2014
    ...a good faith effort to inform either the Council or the Supervisor ( see generally Brohman v. New York Convention Ctr. Operating Corp., 293 A.D.2d 299, 299–300, 740 N.Y.S.2d 312), prior to disclosure to a governmental body ( seeCivil Service Law § 75–b [2][a], [b] ). Plaintiff averred in hi......
  • Hastie v. State Univ. of N.Y.
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • June 10, 2010
    ...governmental action" (Civil Service Law § 75-b [2][a][ii]; see Civil Service Law § 75-b [2][b];Brohman v. New York Convention Ctr. Operating Corp., 293 A.D.2d 299, 299-300, 740 N.Y.S.2d 312 [2002] ). Improper governmental action consists of an illegal "action by a public employer or employe......
  • In the Matter of The Application of Maureen Sheil v. Melucci
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court
    • May 12, 2011
    ...body having the power of appointment to subordinate positions. See Civil Service Law § 2(9); Brohman v. New York Convention Center Operating Corp., 293 A.D.2d 299, 740 N.Y.S.2d 312 (1st Dept. 2002). Here, respondents contend that the appointment authority is respondent Board which made the ......
  • Carter v. Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • May 9, 2019
    ...2015, ch 585, § 2; Tipaldo v. Lynn, 26 N.Y.3d 204, 211, 21 N.Y.S.3d 173, 42 N.E.3d 670 [2015] ; Brohman v. New York Convention Ctr. Operating Corp., 293 A.D.2d 299, 299, 740 N.Y.S.2d 312 [2002] ). Lamm, Carter and Snyder represented that almost all of their complaints about the numerous all......
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