Alabama Appellate Watch

In this appeal from a Fair Dismissal Act proceeding in which employees of Bishop State Community College challenged their terminations on procedural grounds, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals reviewed de novo the decision of the hearing officers in the administrative proceeding.  The Court explained that it applied the de novo standard because the question that it considered was whether the officers "erred in rescinding the employees' terminations on the ground that Bishop State had failed to provide the employees proper notice of the factual bases for the termination of their employment and their pay.  In resolving that question, we review only the hearing officers' conclusions of law and their application of law to the facts. As such, our standard of review is de novo. Barngrover v. Medical Licensure Comm'n of Alabama, 852 So. 2d 147, 152 (Ala. Civ. App. 2002) (stating that the presumption of correctness typically afforded a hearing officer's decision in an administrative proceeding does not attach to the hearing officer's conclusions of law or to his or her improper application of the law to the facts)."  Bishop State Community College v. Angelo Archible, No. 2070670 (Ala. Civ. App. October 24, 2008).