— Judgment reversed, on the law, without costs, and petition dismissed, in accordance with the following memorandum: Petitioner has been employed by the East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District (School District) as a school bus driver since 1972. She held a part-time noninstructional, noncompetitive, unclassified civil service position. The School District had become dissatisfied with petitioner’s work performance. On November 16,1983 petitioner, during the course of her assigned run, dropped a four-year-old prekindergarten student approximately two miles away from the designated drop-off point. Several days later she received a certified letter notifying her that she was being terminated because of her “inability to maintain discipline with
Petitioner commenced a CPLR article 78 proceeding seeking reinstatement with back pay and a due process hearing on her termination. Respondent moved to dismiss, asserting that petitioner was an at-will employee who could be terminated without cause and without the necessity for a hearing. Petitioner maintained that she had a contract of employment for a definite term. Special Term found that reference to a 10-month time period in conjunction with a salary calculated on the basis of employment for the full school year was sufficient to create a definite term of employment. We disagree.
It is well established that “where an employment is for an indefinite term it is presumed to be a hiring at will which may be freely terminated by either party at any time for any reason or even for no reason (see, Martin v New York Life Ins. Co., 148 NY 117; Parker v Borock, 5 NY2d 156).” (Murphy v American Home Prods. Corp., 58 NY2d 293, 300-301.) The annual salary notice which specified a 10-month period of employment and the letter from the School District continuing her services as a bus driver “for the 1983-84 academic year” do not create a contract of employment for a definite term. The fact that compensation is measured by a specific period of time does not render the employment a hiring for a specific term (Watson v Gugino, 204 NY 535; Martin v New York Life Ins. Co., 148 NY 117; Chase v United Hosp., 60 AD2d 558, 559; Cartwright v Golub Corp., 51 AD2d 407, 409). An employer, public or private, has the unqualified right, to terminate an at-will employee without any kind of hearing, absent a constitutionally impermissible purpose, a statutory proscription, or an express limitation in the individual contract of employment (Murphy v American Home Prods. Corp., supra, p 305; Weiner v McGraw-Hill, Inc., 57 NY2d 458; Matter of Bergamini v Manhattan & Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 62 NY2d 897, 899; Matter of Ause v Regan, 59 AD2d 317, 323), none of which is present here. As an unclassified civil service employee, petitioner had no right to a pretermination hearing (Matter of Ause v Regan, supra). Petitioner has failed to establish that termination of her employment violated any constitutional, statutory or contractual provision (Matter of Bergamini v Manhattan & Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., supra, p 899).
Public employees in the noncompetitive class, such as petitioner, are protected from bad-faith discharge but they remain “at-will” employees subject to dismissal upon a proper exercise
All concur, except Hancock, Jr., J. P., and Boomer, J., who dissent and vote to affirm in the following memorandum.