Opinion
October 31, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Lefkowitz, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the motion is granted, the determination is confirmed, and the proceeding is dismissed on the merits.
Inasmuch as the determination to dismiss the petitioner from medical school based on his misrepresentations regarding the grades he previously received at another school "was based upon the exercise of honest discretion after a full review of the operative facts, it was neither arbitrary nor capricious so as to warrant judicial intervention" (Matter of Galiani v. Hofstra Univ., 118 A.D.2d 572; see, Matter of Harris v. Trustees of Columbia Univ., 62 N.Y.2d 956, revg 98 A.D.2d 58, 67-73, for reasons stated in dissent of Kassal, J., at App. Div.; Matter of Carr v. St. John's Univ., 17 A.D.2d 632, 634, affd 12 N.Y.2d 802). The petitioner's contention that he was entitled to a formal hearing pursuant to the provisions of the medical school's student handbook is without merit. The section of the handbook upon which the petitioner relies is clearly aimed at misconduct committed by an individual while a student at the medical school, whereas the fraudulent acts committed by the petitioner in this case occurred prior to, and were intended to facilitate, his admission to the school. The record supports the appellants' contention that the settled policy and practice of the school is to summarily dismiss any student who engages in such misrepresentations, and the Supreme Court erred in finding that the school had at some point intended to afford the petitioner a hearing on the issue.
The petitioner's remaining contentions are without merit. Mangano, P.J., Thompson, Sullivan and Miller, JJ., concur.