EVELEIGH , J. The primary issue in this appeal is whether two reports (reports) relating to the resolution of a formal grievance alleging misconduct against a state university faculty member fall within the exemption from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (act), General Statutes 1-200 et seq., created by General Statutes 10a-154a. 1 The plaintiff, Jay R. Lieberman, the chairman of the orthopedic surgery department at the defendant University of Connecticut Health Center (...
ROBINSON , J. The sole issue in this appeal is whether construction companies owe a duty of care to workers employed on a job site who suffer purely economic harm, namely lost wages, as a result of an accident caused by the construction companies' negligence. The plaintiffs in these two civil actions 1 were gainfully employed in numerous trades at the Kleen Energy power plant (power plant) construction project in the city of Middletown. The plaintiffs brought their claims against the...
ROBINSON , J. The sole issue in this certified appeal is whether a criminal defendant received the effective assistance of counsel when, at sentencing, defense counsel agreed with the prosecutor's recommendation that the trial court should impose the maximum sentence allowed under a plea agreement even though that agreement contained a provision entitling defense counsel to advocate for a lesser sentence. The petitioner, Douglas Davis, appeals, upon our grant of his petition for...
ESPINOSA , J. The issue in this appeal is whether the defendant, the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, acting through the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (authority), 1 had jurisdiction to resolve a dispute between the parties to a contract relating to the provision of electrical capacity. Pursuant to General Statutes 16-243m, 2 the authority conducted a proceeding to develop a form contract between electric distribution companies and generators of electrical...
ROBINSON , J. On August 24, 2004, thirty-one year old William Smolinski, Jr. (Bill), 1 disappeared from his home in the city of Waterbury, never to be seen or heard from again. Firmly convinced that the plaintiff Madeleine Gleason, 2 who was Bill's former girlfriend and a fellow school bus driver, either caused or knew more about Bill's disappearance than she would say, and having noticed that the plaintiff and a friend, Fran Vrabel, were removing certain missing person flyers, the...
VERTEFEUILLE , J. The primary question that we must answer in this appeal is whether the failure to comply with the provisions of General Statutes 10-56, 1 10-47c 2 and 9-226 3 requiring towns to publish warning of a referendum in the same manner as provided for the election of town officials is prejudicial per se, automatically requiring the invalidation of the referendum results. The plaintiffs 4 brought this action against the defendants 5 alleging that the defendant towns of...
PALMER , J. This case comes before us on certification from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut pursuant to General Statutes 51-199b. The certified question that we must answer is: "Does the rule announced by the [United States] Supreme Court in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , [421, 126 S.Ct. 1951, 164 L.Ed.2d 689] (2006), i.e., `that when. . . employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for [...
EVELEIGH , J. The present case arises from the ruling of the named defendant, the Freedom of Information Commission (commission), that the defendant Ron Robillard was entitled to the disclosure of documents in the possession of the plaintiffs, the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (department) and its Freedom of Information Officer (information officer), under the Freedom of Information Act (act), General Statutes 1-200 et seq. The commission appeals from the judgment of...
VERTEFEUILLE , J. Connecticut's debt negotiation statutes, General Statutes 36a-671 through 36a-671e, 1 authorize the defendant, the Banking Commissioner (commissioner), to license and regulate persons engaged in the debt negotiation business. Attorneys who provide debt negotiation services are not exempted generally from such regulation, except those attorneys "admitted to the practice of law in [Connecticut] who [engage] or [offer] to engage in debt negotiation as an ancillary matter...
ROGERS , C.J. The primary issue in this appeal is whether the trial court properly relied on certain conduct of the respondent father, Matthew M. (respondent), in granting the petition to terminate his parental rights. The respondent appeals from the judgment of the Appellate Court affirming the trial court's decision to terminate his parental rights as to his minor child, Shane M., and to appoint the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families (commissioner), as statutory parent....
EVELEIGH , J. This certified appeal raises important issues concerning the review of unpreserved claims under State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233 , 239-40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989), and our supervisory authority over the administration of justice in connection with the need to canvass a parent in a termination of parental rights proceeding. The present case arises from the trial court's judgments terminating the parental rights of the respondent mother, Ashley P., to her two minor children. 1...
ROBINSON , J. The defendant, Thomas F. Bonilla, appeals 1 from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of one count of murder as an accessory in violation of General Statutes 53a-8(a) 2 and 53a-54a(a), 3 and one count of felony murder in violation of General Statutes 53a-54c. 4 On appeal, the defendant claims that: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of murder as an accessory; and (2) the trial court improperly failed to instruct the jury,...
EVELEIGH , J. In this certified appeal, we must decide whether the Appellate Court properly reversed the judgments of the trial court terminating the parental rights of the respondent mother as to her two minor daughters, Nevaeh W. and Janiyah A. 1 On appeal, the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families, asserts that the Appellate Court improperly reversed the judgments of the trial court terminating the parental rights of the respondent on the ground that the trial court...
PALMER , J. The plaintiffs, Artie's Auto Body, Inc., A & R Body Specialty, Skrip's Auto Body, and the Auto Body Association of Connecticut (association), 1 brought this class action against the defendant, The Hartford Fire Insurance Company, on behalf of more than 1000 independent automobile (auto) body repair shops in Connecticut. They principally claimed that the defendant had violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA), General Statutes 42-110a et seq., by requiring...
ROGERS , C.J. The primary issue in this appeal requires us to resolve whether expert testimony proffered at trial regarding the "crash phase" of withdrawal from stimulant drug use was supported by sufficient scientific methodology to satisfy the standard set forth in State v. Porter, 241 Conn. 57 , 80-90, 698 A.2d 739 (1997), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1058, 118 S.Ct. 1384, 140 L.Ed.2d 645 (1998). The plaintiff, Janet McCall Fleming, brought this action as the administratrix of the estate...
ROBINSON , J. A jury found that the defendant, the Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation, acted negligently and recklessly when it assigned Father Ivan Ferguson, an alcoholic whose admitted acts of child molestation were understood to be linked to his drinking, to serve as the director of Saint Mary's Elementary School in Derby (Saint Mary's School), where he sexually abused the plaintiff, Jacob Doe, 1 from 1981 through 1983. The defendant now appeals from the judgment of the...
PER CURIAM . The dispositive issue in this certified appeal is whether the trial court's order granting the motion of the plaintiff, Paul Radzik, individually and as the administrator of the estate of his son, Jonathan Radzik, 1 to compel electronic discovery of the hard drives of certain computers used by the defendant Francisco A. Sylvester constitutes a final judgment. The defendants, Connecticut Children's Medical Center (hospital), Sylvester, and CCMC Faculty Practice Plan, Inc.,...
McDONALD , J. A broadly phrased, unrestricted submission to arbitration may yield unanticipated results, as this case aptly demonstrates. In the underlying arbitration proceeding, the arbitrator found that the named defendant, the Department of Children and Families (department), 1 had failed to establish that a department employee, Suzanne Listro, had inflicted the fatal abuse on her foster child that the department claimed provided just cause for termination of her employment. The...
ZARELLA , J. The primary issue in this case is whether the defendants, the city of Meriden (city) and the Meriden Municipal Pension Board, properly calculated the health insurance emoluments of the plaintiffs, which they receive as part of their pension from the city. The plaintiffs consist of two groups of claimants: (1) widows of deceased Meriden police officers or firefighters (plaintiff widows); and (2) retired Meriden police officers or firefighters who have been divorced or widowed...
ZARELLA , J. The present appeal involves a dispute over pension benefits between the named defendant, the city of Meriden (city), and the plaintiffs, all of whom are retired Meriden police officers and firefighters. 1 The plaintiffs appeal from the judgment of the trial court, which determined that the city properly reduced the plaintiffs' health insurance emoluments in 2005 according to the terms of a provision in a prior version of the Meriden City Charter 2 (city charter) and a...
