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Monday, May 19, 2008
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Agency Courts WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
Standard Stated For Finding Police Officer's Heart Claim As Untimely 
The majority of the Compensation Review Board panel affirmed a trial commissioner’s decision finding that a police office filed an untimely notice of claim for benefits under the Heart and Hypertension Act, C.G.S. §7-433c when he had transient, borderline high blood pressure readings over several years but was not diagnosed as hypertensive.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
Notice To Attorney Started 20 Day Time Period To Appeal
The 20 day time limitation for filing an appeal under C.G.S. §31-301(a) began running once the attorney for the claimant at the formal hearing received notice of the trier’s finding and dismissal and notified the claimant’s conservatrix that the claim had been dismissed.
EMPLOYMENT
Whistleblower Failed To Prove Retaliatory Failure To Promote
A correctional worker who received excellent marks for his written exam, time and attendance, and disciplinary record, but complained because he allegedly received threats from other workers and was subjected to a hostile worker environment, failed to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, he was not promoted as a result of retaliation for whistleblowing.
Appellate Court CRIMINAL PRACTICE
Sufficient Evidence To Support Evasion Of Responsibility Conviction
A court reasonably could have found that the cumulative effect of the evidence was sufficient to establish that the defendant was guilty of two counts of evasion of responsibility in the operation of a motor vehicle in violation of C.G.S. §14-224(b) where he hit a telephone poll causing it to lean close to the ground and ran off into the woods leaving an injured, intoxicated passenger at the scene.
EVIDENCE
Evidence Of Police Dept. Bias Was Properly Excluded
A trial court properly excluded the defendant’s proffered evidence when there was no factual basis given to conclude that a department-wide bias against the defendant existed among the Bethel police.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
Chiropractic Treatments Found Not Medically Reasonable Or Necessary
The Workers’ Compensation Review Board properly sustained the decision of a workers’ compensation commissioner denying the plaintiff’s claim for workers compensation benefits after finding that chiropractic treatments were not medically reasonable and necessary.
Federal Courts EMPLOYMENT
CFEPA Count Survived In Attorney’s Class-Action Suit Against GE
A court denied a defense motion to dismiss counts that alleged violation of the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act and aiding and abetting discrimination and retaliation, in an attorney’s class-action employment discrimination suit against General Electric Co.
INSURANCE LAW
Misrepresentation And CUTPA Counterclaims Survived Dismissal
Allegations that the plaintiff made misrepresentations to induce the defendant to enter into a reinsurance agreement, and disregarded the structure of the Williams Group Program, in an attempt to make the defendant legally responsible for losses for which another party was responsible, sufficed to allege a Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act counterclaim.
CIVIL PRACTICE
Deposition Of South Carolina Resident To Take Place In Connecticut
After the parties disputed the appropriate location of a deposition for the former director of special education for a municipality, because she currently resides in South Carolina, the District Court ordered that the deposition take place in Connecticut.
CRIMINAL PRACTICE
Prisoner Seeks Lithium And Confinement Only In A Single Cell
A court denied a preliminary injunction to a prisoner who allegedly has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder and who sought a court order to receive lithium and to be confined in a single cell.
EMPLOYMENT
City Clerk Alleged Extreme, Outrageous Conduct By Comptroller
A clerk who alleged that her boss suggested she wear dresses, because he would `like to see more,' placed tubes in front of his private area and said, `hey baby,' and touched her as he passed, sufficiently alleged extreme and outrageous conduct, to state a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Second Circuit Court IMMIGRATION LAW
Petitioner Presented Chronology That Omitted Beatings And Rape
An immigration judge reasonably found that a petitioner was not credible as a result of inconsistent testimony about the length of a detention in 2001 and the omission of an incident in which the petitioner and family members allegedly were beaten and raped.
Superior Court DAMAGES
Court Amended Its 2007 Decision On Disabled Tenant’s Slip And Fall
After the parties stipulated that the defendant was not the owner of record at the time of a slip and fall, a court amended its Nov. 19, 2007, decision, in which the court awarded $96,726 to a disabled tenant, to find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the defendant had possession and control.
FAMILY LAW
MBA To Pay $6,250 Per Month For Four Years Or Until Wife Remarries
A court ordered a husband of nearly eight years to pay unallocated alimony and child support of $6,250 per month for four years, or until the wife remarries, dies, or enters into a civil union, and found the husband was not responsible for the wife’s current pregnancy.
GOVERNMENT
Issuance Of Building Permits Not A Municipal `Trade Or Commerce'
A municipality’s issuance of building permits and failure to provide notice about a mine constituted a government function, as opposed to `trade or commerce' under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, and a court granted the municipality’s motion to strike the property owners’ CUTPA count.
LAND USE AND PLANNING
Lot With 150 Feet Of Frontage Met Zoning Frontage Requirements
A proposed lot with 150 feet of frontage met frontage requirements in the planning and zoning regulations, although the plaintiff’s subdivision proposal envisioned that access to the lot would take place via a driveway on the adjoining lot.
REAL PROPERTY
Neighbors’ Driveway Allegedly Located On Plaintiffs’ Lot
The plaintiffs’ title insurance policy did not cover a `fact which an accurate survey . . . would disclose,' and the court granted the Connecticut Attorneys Title Insurance Co.’s motion for summary judgment in a suit alleging that a survey disclosed that the adjacent property’s driveway, front walk and deck were located on the property of the plaintiff homeowners.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
Worker Allegedly Quit Without Good Cause Attributable To Employer
The Board of Review’s decision that the plaintiff, Theresa Bender, was not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits, because she voluntarily quit, without good cause that could be attributed to her employer, was not arbitrary, capricious or contrary to law.
Supreme Court ATTORNEYS’ FEES
State Agency Was Not “Person” For Award Of Statutory Attorney’s Fees
The Commissioner of Environmental Protection was not a “person” entitled to recover an award of attorney’s fees and costs under C.G.S. §22a-18(e) after prevailing in an action under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act of 1971, C.G.S. §22a-14 et seq.
CIVIL PRACTICE
Malicious Prosecution Action Accrued When Underlying Action Ended
A malicious prosecution action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983 was improperly dismissed as time barred under the three year limitation period of C.G.S. §52-577 when the action accrued, not upon the plaintiff’s arrest, but, when the prosecution against the plaintiff terminated in his favor.
EMPLOYMENT
Discrimination Claim Of Surviving Spouse Failed For Lack Of Standing
The recipient of a surviving spouse pension allowance lacked standing under the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act, C.G.S. §46a-60(a)(1), to file a marital status discrimination complaint against the former employer of his deceased spouse and its agents for terminating his allowance upon his remarriage.
GOVERNMENT
Police Disability Pension Not Required To Be Higher Than Service Pension
The Supreme Court overruled the 2001 Appellate Court decision in Downey v. Retirement Board to the extent that it required municipal retirement boards to award disability pensions in an amount that exceeded what individual applicants would be entitled to receive under a vested service pension.
GOVERNMENT
Police Disability Pension Did Not Have To Exceed Vested Service Pension
Based on its determination in the companion case of O’Connor v. City of Waterbury issued on the same date, the Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s judgment dismissing a police officer’s appeal of his disability pension award that did not provide him any amount in excess of his vested service pension despite a work related back injury and hearing loss from his 25 years serving as an instructor on a police shooting range.
TAXATION
Common Areas Owned By A Homeowners' Association Were Improperly Taxed
Common areas owned by a neighborhood homeowners’ association and subject to extensive encumbrances that benefited the association’s neighborhood resident members were overvalued and should have been assessed at nominal amounts with their substantial inherent value instead reflected in the assessments of the individual members’ properties.
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