Coollick v. Town of Windham

508 A.2d 46, 7 Conn. App. 142, 1986 Conn. App. LEXIS 940
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedApril 22, 1986
Docket4029
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 508 A.2d 46 (Coollick v. Town of Windham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coollick v. Town of Windham, 508 A.2d 46, 7 Conn. App. 142, 1986 Conn. App. LEXIS 940 (Colo. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

Spallone, J.

The plaintiff is appealing from a judgment rendered upon the decision of the trial court dismissing his suit against the defendants. The dispositive issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The facts underlying this action are as follows. On June 16,1982, the plaintiff, Richard Coollick, a regular uniformed member of the Windham (formerly Willimantic) police department, underwent coronary bypass surgery. Thereafter, the plaintiff applied for workers’ compensation benefits pursuant to General Statutes §§ 7-433c and 31-307. Section 7-433c provides for benefits to be awarded to certain policemen and firemen who become disabled or who die as a result of hypertension or heart disease, and § 31-307 provides for benefits to be awarded to certain workers who become totally incapacitated. The workers’ compensation commissioner ruled the plaintiff eligible and awarded him [144]*144benefits pursuant to the statutes. The town of Wind-ham, a self-insured municipality, did not appeal the decision.

Windham failed to pay the award. On December 22, 1983, the plaintiff commenced an action against the defendants1 alleging that they acted in bad faith in refusing to pay the award, thereby entitling the plaintiff to compensatory and punitive damages, including attorney’s fees.

The defendants moved to dismiss the action claiming lack of subject matter jurisdiction in that the plaintiff’s failure to receive benefits should be addressed to the compensation commissioner who was vested with exclusive jurisdiction to hear such claims.

At oral argument on the motion to dismiss, the plaintiff conceded that jurisdiction to hear claims based on a failure to pay under the workers’ compensation provisions was vested solely in the workers’ compensation commission. The plaintiff argued, however, that he sought damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983,2 the Federal Civil Rights Act. The trial court concluded that “[bjecause the plaintiff has failed to state a claim based upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and because the plaintiff has already conceded that the court lacks jurisdiction over his workers’ compensation claims, the defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted.”

[145]*145We note that the trial court, in ruling that the plaintiff did not make out a cause of action under the civil rights act, in effect, ruled on the legal sufficiency of the defendants’ complaint. Such a ruling is properly the subject of a motion to strike; Practice Book § 152 (3); and not a motion to dismiss as was before the trial court. See Practice Book § 143. “The record does not [, however,] indicate that the impropriety of the use of a motion to dismiss in this manner was ever raised in the trial court. It was not made here. We shall therefore consider the case ‘as it was presented by the parties, overlooking the foregoing procedural shortcomings and treating the motion to dismiss as sustainable under the same test as would have been applicable’ if it had been a motion to strike. Glens Falls Ins. Co. v. Somers, 146 Conn. 708, 713, 156 A.2d 146 (1959).” Progressive Casualty Ins. Co. v. DiGangi, 4 Conn. App. 137, 139-40, 492 A.2d 548, cert. granted, 197 Conn. 810, 499 A.2d 60 (1985).

We therefore agree with the holding of the trial court that the plaintiff failed to present properly a claim cognizable under the Civil Rights Act because his complaint fails to set out any deprivation of a right secured by the constitution or laws of the United States, as is required. See, e.g., Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S. Ct. 2502, 65 L. Ed. 2d 555 (1980); Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140, 99 S. Ct. 2689, 61 L. Ed. 2d 433 (1979); Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S. Ct. 2018, 56 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1978); Williams v. Treen, 671 F.2d 892 (5th Cir. 1982); Bills v. Henderson, 631 F.2d 1287 (6th Cir. 1980).

The plaintiff alleges that he has been deprived of a property interest, i.e., his entitlements under the Workers’ Compensation Act. He relies upon Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, 86, 92 S. Ct. 1983, 32 L. Ed. 2d 556, reh. denied, 409 U.S. 902, 93 S. Ct. 177, 34 L. Ed. [146]*1462d 165 (1972), for the proposition that statutory entitlements are property rights under the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution. Unlike Fuentes, however, where the plaintiffs’ challenged the statutory scheme itself as violative of due process, the plaintiff here does not complain that any of the defendants acted without due process of law. The plaintiff’s complaint alleges only that the city of Willimantic and the town of Windham “acted in bad faith and with improper motive,” that Paul Shaw “acted wilfully and in gross disregard of the rights of the plaintiff,” and that Neil Mesick and Armand Martineau “acted in bad faith and with an improper motive” in refusing to grant workers’ compensation benefits to the plaintiff.

As was noted in Marrero v. City of Hialeah, 625 F.2d 499 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied sub nom. Rashkind v. Marrero, 450 U.S. 913, 101 S. Ct. 1353, 67 L. Ed. 2d 337 (1981), “[i]n order to state a claim under the fourteenth amendment, the complainant must allege facts showing not only that the State has deprived him of a liberty or property interest but also that the State has done so without due process of law.” (Footnote omitted.) Id., 519.

In Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S. Ct. 1908, 68 L. Ed. 2d 420 (1981), the United States Supreme Court considered the claim of a prison inmate, made under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, who ordered certain hobby materials by mail, which materials were lost after they were received at the correctional institution. In that action, the District Court had granted the inmate’s motion for summary judgment and the Circuit Court had affirmed that ruling.

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Bluebook (online)
508 A.2d 46, 7 Conn. App. 142, 1986 Conn. App. LEXIS 940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coollick-v-town-of-windham-connappct-1986.