Case Name: In the Matter of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations et al., Respondents, v. New York State Public Employment Relations Board et al., Appellants
Court: New York Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1975-07-08
Citations: 37 N.Y.2d 752
Docket Number: 
Parties: In the Matter of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations et al., Respondents, v New York State Public Employment Relations Board et al., Appellants.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Reports
Volume: 37
Pages: 752–759

Head Matter:
In the Matter of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations et al., Respondents, v New York State Public Employment Relations Board et al., Appellants.
Argued June 10, 1975;
decided July 8, 1975
Martin L. Barr for New York State Public Employment Relations Board, appellant.
Adrian P. Burke, Corporation Counsel (Milton H. Harris and L. Kevin Sheridan of counsel), for City of New York, appellant.
Emanuel Dannett and Robert M. Schanzer for Richard M. Brower, appellant.
Louis Lauer and Sol Neil Corbin for New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, respondent.
Joan Stern Kiok, Julius Topol and Stephen C Vladek for David Beasley and others, respondents.
Norbert M. Phillipps and Robert T. Snyder for New York State Labor Relations Board, amicus curiae.

Opinion:
Memorandum. Judgment of the Appellate Division affirmed, without costs, on the opinion of Mr. Justice George Tilzer at the Appellate Division with one modification and the following comment. It is not necessary to determine, and it should not be determined at this time in this case, whether the so-called Taylor Law (Civil Service Law, art 14) is intended to cover only "those employees excluded from the jurisdiction of the Labor Relations Act", although that may well be the effect of the several applicable statutes. It is enough that the New York Public Library is not a public employer, joint or otherwise, within the terms or effect of the Taylor Law. The short of it is that the instant public library employment satisfies in some respects the character of public employment and in other substantial respects does not, and that the Taylor Law applies only to employment which is unequivocally or substantially public. As Mr. Justice Tilzer's opinion demonstrates the nonpublic aspect of library employment is sufficiently substantial to exclude it from regulation under the Taylor Law, as it now reads.