Postman Who Hid Mail in Car to Get Job Back

The Supreme Court today cleared the way for the reinstatement of a Postal Service letter carrier from Garden City, N.Y., fired for failing to deliver more than 3,500 pieces of mail.

The court let stand an arbitrator’s ruling that Edward Hyde is entitled to his old job.

Hyde’s case, under study by the nation’s highest court since last December, was dismissed in a one-sentence order.

The justices, who had been urged by Reagan Administration lawyers to rule that Hyde’s reinstatement would be “contrary to public policy,” said they made a mistake when agreeing to review the case.

The court, without explanation, dismissed the government’s appeal “as improvidently granted”--automatically upholding a federal appeals court ruling that, in turn, had upheld the arbitrator’s ruling.

In a 1987 ruling, the justices unanimously ruled that an arbitrator’s award may be overturned on public policy grounds only when the award creates an explicit conflict with laws or legal precedent.

Year-Old Mail in Car

In Hyde’s case, Justice Department lawyers had argued that he should not be reinstated no matter what the standard to be used in cases involving private employers.

“A general policy of deference to arbitral awards cannot override the need . . . to protect the basic public mission of the Postal Service,” the government’s appeal had argued.

Police and postal inspectors in 1984 searched Hyde’s car and found more than 3,500 pieces of undelivered mail addressed to residents on his delivery route. Some of the mail was more than a year old.

Hyde pleaded guilty to unlawful delay of the mail and was sentenced to 18 months probation. The Postal Service fired him.

The National Assn. of Letter Carriers filed a grievance and took the Postal Service to arbitration over Hyde’s firing.

The arbitrator ordered that Hyde be reinstated without back pay after taking a 60-day medical leave of absence. A condition of Hyde’s probation on his criminal conviction was that he complete a rehabilitation program.