Peters, C. J.
The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether the legislature intended judges of the Superior Court to come within the jurisdictional confines of the Workers’ Compensation Act, General Statutes [55]*55§ 31-275 et seq.1 Following the death of her husband, the Honorable Frank J. Kinney, Jr., the plaintiff, Joan A. Kinney, filed a workers’ compensation claim against the state alleging that the decedent’s fatal heart condition was causally related to work-induced stress. Ruling that the decedent was an “employee” for the purposes of workers’ compensation as defined by General Statutes § 31-275 (5) and that his death arose out of and in the course of his employment, the commissioner for the third district awarded the plaintiff the maximum allowable spousal survivorship benefits under General Statutes § 31-306 (b). In response to the defendant’s appeal, pursuant to General Statutes § 31-301, the compensation review division, on its own motion, invoked the procedure authorized by General Statutes § 31-324,2 to reserve to the Appellate Court the threshold jurisdictional issue of whether a Superior Court judge is an employee as defined by § 31-275 (5). We transferred this reservation to ourselves pursuant to Practice Book § 4023.3 We answer no.
[56]*56The plaintiff sought workers’ compensation benefits on the theory that the chronic stress connected with her husband’s employment with the defendant contributed to his death. After the defendant contested her claim pursuant to General Statutes § 31-297 (b), the commissioner conducted a formal hearing as provided in General Statutes § 31-298.* **4 As a result of that hearing, the commissioner made the following findings of fact, which are not contested in this appeal. The decedent was first appointed to the state bench in 1972. At the time of his death, he had undertaken various administrative assignments in addition to his judicial responsibilities for the adjudication of criminal cases. The decedent was serving as the presiding criminal and administrative judge for the judicial district of New Haven, the chief administrative judge of the criminal division for the entire state and also as the chairman of the Commission to Study Alternate Sentences. The defendant at all times controlled, supervised and regulated the decedent's administrative duties. The decedent, by accepting and performing judicial and administrative duties in return for fair compensation, had entered into an employment relationship with the [57]*57defendant. The unusual work pressures5 associated with the decedent’s excessive administrative workload resulted in chronic stress that contributed to the development of coronary artery disease and exacerbated his preexisting myocardial atherosclerosis.6 The myocardial infarction that resulted in his death was precipitated in part by the chronic stress associated with his prodigious judicial duties.7
On the basis of these findings of fact, the commissioner concluded that the decedent’s employment relationship with the defendant constituted a contract of employment for the purposes of the Workers’ Compensation Act; General Statutes § 31-275 (5); and that the decedent’s death arose out of and in the course of his employment. Accordingly, the commissioner awarded the plaintiff the maximum allowable spousal survivor-ship benefits under § 31-306 (b) (2).8
[58]*58In its appeal to the compensation review division, the defendant challenged the validity of the commissioner’s determination that the instant case falls within the jurisdiction of the Workers’ Compensation Act. The defendant maintained then, as it does now, that a judge of the Superior Court is not an employee for the purposes of workers’ compensation, and does not have an employer-employee relationship with the defendant. The review division decided to seek guidance on these questions of law, and propounded the reservation that is presently before us.
We must decide in this case whether the legislature intended the Workers’ Compensation Act to confer jurisdiction upon the commissioner to award benefits to the plaintiff. Even though the plaintiff has presented a factual record that warrants sympathetic consideration of her claims, her entitlement to relief cannot transcend the jurisdictional limits of the statute under which she seeks recovery. Once an issue of subject matter jurisdiction is raised,9 the court must dispose of this legal question as a threshold matter. Concerned Citizens of Sterling v. Sterling, 204 Conn. 551, 556-57, 529 A.2d 666 (1987); Cahill v. Board of Education, 198 Conn. 229, 238, 502 A.2d 410 (1985). “ ‘ “[Wjhenever a court discovers that it has no jurisdiction, it is bound to dismiss the case, without regard to previous rulings.” ’ Chzrislonk v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 101 Conn. 356, 358, 125 A. 874 (1924).” Cahill v. Board of Education, supra; Pet v. Department of Health Services, 207 Conn. 346, 351, 542 A.2d 672 (1988). The applicability of these principles is no less compelling in the instant case where the limited and statutory jurisdiction at issue is the legislative will as expressed in the Workers’ Compensation Act. Although the Workers’ Com[59]*59pensation Act “should be broadly construed to accomplish its humanitarian purpose”; Adzima v. UAC/Norden Division, 177 Conn. 107, 117, 411 A.2d 924 (1979); Perille v. Raybestos-Manhattan-Europe, Inc., 196 Conn. 529, 541, 494 A.2d 555 (1985); its remedial purpose cannot transcend its statutorily defined jurisdictional boundaries. Castro v. Viera, 207 Conn. 420, 435, 541 A.2d 1216 (1988); Perille v. Raybestos-Manhattan-Europe, Inc., supra, 541-42; Jester v. Thompson, 99 Conn. 236, 238, 121 A. 470 (1923). “The act is not triggered by a claimant until he brings himself within its statutory ambit.” Castro v. Viera, supra, 433.
The plaintiff would have us resolve the jurisdictional issue in this case by deferring to the commissioner’s findings of fact. This we cannot do. We recognize that the commissioner found that the decedent’s judicial duties amounted to a contractual relationship with the defendant such that he was an “employee” for purposes of workers’ compensation as defined by § 31-275 (5). While it is correct that “[bjecause only employees are entitled to compensation under the act . . . coverage must arise from a contract of employment, either express or implied”; Blancato v. Feldspar Corporation, 203 Conn. 34, 38, 522 A.2d 1235 (1987); Sibley v. State, 89 Conn. 682, 686-87, 96 A. 161 (1915); our jurisdictional inquiry is not limited to the commissioner’s factual finding of the decedent’s contract of employment with the defendant. The elements of subject matter jurisdiction are “dependent upon both law and fact.” (Emphasis added.) Castro v. Viera, supra, 433.
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Peters, C. J.
The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether the legislature intended judges of the Superior Court to come within the jurisdictional confines of the Workers’ Compensation Act, General Statutes [55]*55§ 31-275 et seq.1 Following the death of her husband, the Honorable Frank J. Kinney, Jr., the plaintiff, Joan A. Kinney, filed a workers’ compensation claim against the state alleging that the decedent’s fatal heart condition was causally related to work-induced stress. Ruling that the decedent was an “employee” for the purposes of workers’ compensation as defined by General Statutes § 31-275 (5) and that his death arose out of and in the course of his employment, the commissioner for the third district awarded the plaintiff the maximum allowable spousal survivorship benefits under General Statutes § 31-306 (b). In response to the defendant’s appeal, pursuant to General Statutes § 31-301, the compensation review division, on its own motion, invoked the procedure authorized by General Statutes § 31-324,2 to reserve to the Appellate Court the threshold jurisdictional issue of whether a Superior Court judge is an employee as defined by § 31-275 (5). We transferred this reservation to ourselves pursuant to Practice Book § 4023.3 We answer no.
[56]*56The plaintiff sought workers’ compensation benefits on the theory that the chronic stress connected with her husband’s employment with the defendant contributed to his death. After the defendant contested her claim pursuant to General Statutes § 31-297 (b), the commissioner conducted a formal hearing as provided in General Statutes § 31-298.* **4 As a result of that hearing, the commissioner made the following findings of fact, which are not contested in this appeal. The decedent was first appointed to the state bench in 1972. At the time of his death, he had undertaken various administrative assignments in addition to his judicial responsibilities for the adjudication of criminal cases. The decedent was serving as the presiding criminal and administrative judge for the judicial district of New Haven, the chief administrative judge of the criminal division for the entire state and also as the chairman of the Commission to Study Alternate Sentences. The defendant at all times controlled, supervised and regulated the decedent's administrative duties. The decedent, by accepting and performing judicial and administrative duties in return for fair compensation, had entered into an employment relationship with the [57]*57defendant. The unusual work pressures5 associated with the decedent’s excessive administrative workload resulted in chronic stress that contributed to the development of coronary artery disease and exacerbated his preexisting myocardial atherosclerosis.6 The myocardial infarction that resulted in his death was precipitated in part by the chronic stress associated with his prodigious judicial duties.7
On the basis of these findings of fact, the commissioner concluded that the decedent’s employment relationship with the defendant constituted a contract of employment for the purposes of the Workers’ Compensation Act; General Statutes § 31-275 (5); and that the decedent’s death arose out of and in the course of his employment. Accordingly, the commissioner awarded the plaintiff the maximum allowable spousal survivor-ship benefits under § 31-306 (b) (2).8
[58]*58In its appeal to the compensation review division, the defendant challenged the validity of the commissioner’s determination that the instant case falls within the jurisdiction of the Workers’ Compensation Act. The defendant maintained then, as it does now, that a judge of the Superior Court is not an employee for the purposes of workers’ compensation, and does not have an employer-employee relationship with the defendant. The review division decided to seek guidance on these questions of law, and propounded the reservation that is presently before us.
We must decide in this case whether the legislature intended the Workers’ Compensation Act to confer jurisdiction upon the commissioner to award benefits to the plaintiff. Even though the plaintiff has presented a factual record that warrants sympathetic consideration of her claims, her entitlement to relief cannot transcend the jurisdictional limits of the statute under which she seeks recovery. Once an issue of subject matter jurisdiction is raised,9 the court must dispose of this legal question as a threshold matter. Concerned Citizens of Sterling v. Sterling, 204 Conn. 551, 556-57, 529 A.2d 666 (1987); Cahill v. Board of Education, 198 Conn. 229, 238, 502 A.2d 410 (1985). “ ‘ “[Wjhenever a court discovers that it has no jurisdiction, it is bound to dismiss the case, without regard to previous rulings.” ’ Chzrislonk v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 101 Conn. 356, 358, 125 A. 874 (1924).” Cahill v. Board of Education, supra; Pet v. Department of Health Services, 207 Conn. 346, 351, 542 A.2d 672 (1988). The applicability of these principles is no less compelling in the instant case where the limited and statutory jurisdiction at issue is the legislative will as expressed in the Workers’ Compensation Act. Although the Workers’ Com[59]*59pensation Act “should be broadly construed to accomplish its humanitarian purpose”; Adzima v. UAC/Norden Division, 177 Conn. 107, 117, 411 A.2d 924 (1979); Perille v. Raybestos-Manhattan-Europe, Inc., 196 Conn. 529, 541, 494 A.2d 555 (1985); its remedial purpose cannot transcend its statutorily defined jurisdictional boundaries. Castro v. Viera, 207 Conn. 420, 435, 541 A.2d 1216 (1988); Perille v. Raybestos-Manhattan-Europe, Inc., supra, 541-42; Jester v. Thompson, 99 Conn. 236, 238, 121 A. 470 (1923). “The act is not triggered by a claimant until he brings himself within its statutory ambit.” Castro v. Viera, supra, 433.
The plaintiff would have us resolve the jurisdictional issue in this case by deferring to the commissioner’s findings of fact. This we cannot do. We recognize that the commissioner found that the decedent’s judicial duties amounted to a contractual relationship with the defendant such that he was an “employee” for purposes of workers’ compensation as defined by § 31-275 (5). While it is correct that “[bjecause only employees are entitled to compensation under the act . . . coverage must arise from a contract of employment, either express or implied”; Blancato v. Feldspar Corporation, 203 Conn. 34, 38, 522 A.2d 1235 (1987); Sibley v. State, 89 Conn. 682, 686-87, 96 A. 161 (1915); our jurisdictional inquiry is not limited to the commissioner’s factual finding of the decedent’s contract of employment with the defendant. The elements of subject matter jurisdiction are “dependent upon both law and fact.” (Emphasis added.) Castro v. Viera, supra, 433. Although the plaintiff correctly asserts that the power and duty of determining facts rests on the commissioner as the trier of facts; Fair v. People’s Savings Bank, 207 Conn. 535, 539, 542 A.2d 1118 (1988); the conclusions drawn by the commissioner cannot stand when they result from an incorrect application of the law. Id.; Adzima v. UAC/NordenDivision, supra, 118.
[60]*60The commissioner exercises jurisdiction only “ ‘under the precise circumstances and in the manner particularly prescribed by the enabling legislation.’ Heiser v. Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., 150 Conn. 563, 565, 192 A.2d 44 (1963).” Castro v. Viera, supra, 427-28.10 The parties cannot confer jurisdiction upon the commissioner by agreement, waiver or conduct. Id., 430; Jester v. Thompson, supra, 238. The plaintiff may invoke the remedy provided under the Workers’ Compensation Act only if her decedent, as a matter of law, satisfies the requisite jurisdictional standard of “employee” as defined by the legislature in § 31-275 (5).* 11 The legal question before us, therefore, is whether the legislature intended to include judges of the Superior Court within § 31-275 (5).
We begin our examination of the scope of § 31-275 (5) by recourse to the accepted rules of statutory construction. We look first to the text of § 31-275 (5) itself. Because § 31-275 (5) consists of a functional definition with expressly delineated exceptions, for purposes of clarity, we will focus first on the operative meaning before integrating the exceptions into our analysis. Section 31-275 (5) defines “employee” in relevant part as “any person who has entered into or works under any contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer . . . . ” This language, on its face, expresses no clear legislative intent as to whether a member of the judi-[61]*61iary is a covered “employee.” In ascertaining legislative intent, however, the legislature is presumed to know the history of a statute as judicially construed. Nichols v. Warren, 209 Conn. 191, 202 n.8, 550 A.2d 309 (1988); Peck v. Jacquemin, 196 Conn. 53, 71, 491 A.2d 1043 (1985). Our decisions concerning the eligibility of individuals working in the public sector for workers’ compensation benefits have long distinguished between public officers and public employees, and have held that public officers not expressly included within the definition provided by § 31-275 (5) are not “employees” for the purposes of the act. McDonald v. New Haven, 94 Conn. 403, 417-18, 109 A. 176 (1920); Sibley v. State, supra, 685.
It is undisputed that judges of the Superior Court meet the three part test that determines the existence of a public office: “ ‘(1) an authority conferred by law, (2) a fixed tenure of office, and (3) the power to exercise some portion of the sovereign functions of government. Kelly v. Bridgeport, 111 Conn. 667, 671, 151 A. 268 [1930]; Mechem, Public Officers § 1.’ ” Murach v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 196 Conn. 192, 198, 491 A.2d 1058 (1985). The Connecticut constitution so provides. With respect to the first and third prongs, article second of the Connecticut constitution, in dividing the broad powers of government into three distinct branches, confers “a separate [judicial] magistracy” upon a “distinct department,” the judiciary; Pellegrino v. O’Neill, 193 Conn. 670, 679, 480 A.2d 476, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 875, 105 S. Ct. 236, 83 L. Ed. 2d 176 (1984); Heiberger v. Clark, 148 Conn. 177, 185, 169 A.2d 652 (1961); while article fifth, § 1 describes its organizational structure and reiterates that its powers and jurisdiction shall be defined by law. With respect to the second prong, article fifth, § 2 provides in relevant part: “They shall hold their offices for the term of eight years . . . .” Moreover, the judiciary’s right [62]*62to compensation as public officers falls clearly within the distinction contemplated in Sibley v. State, supra, 685, where this court denied workers’ compensation benefits to a sheriff because, as a public officer, his right to compensation “ ‘belongs to him not by force of any contract, but because the law attaches it to the office.’ ”12 Id., quoting F. Mechem, supra, §§ 855 and 856.
The distinction between public employees and public officers, for the purpose of workers’ compensation, finds textual recognition in the jurisdictional definitions contained in the Workers’ Compensation Act. Section 31-275 (5) expressly includes some public officers, but not judges, within the class of those eligible for workers’ compensation by defining “employee” in relevant part to “include any person elected to serve as a member of the general assembly of this state and . . . any salaried officer or paid member of any police department or fire department and any elected or appointed official or agent of any city, town or borough, upon vote of the proper authority of such city, town or borough. . . . ” This enumeration would have been wholly unnecessary had these public officials constituted employees under the analysis of Sibley v. State, supra. Because, for purposes of statutory construction, we presume a purpose behind every sentence, clause or phrase in a legislative enactment; Peek v. Jac-quemin, supra, 66; we must attach significance to the legislature’s intention to grant workers’ compensation only to those public officers expressly described in [63]*63§ 31-275 (5). Statutory itemization indicates that the legislature intended the list to be exclusive. The B. F. Goodrich Co. v. Dubno, 196 Conn. 1, 6, 490 A.2d 991 (1985).
The legislative history of the evolution of the definition of “employee” under the Workers’ Compensation Act supports our conclusion that the legislature intended the express inclusions enumerated in § 31-275 (5) to be exclusive. Until 1921, the definition of “employee” necessary to invoke workers’ compensation had been limited to “any person who has entered into or works under any contract . . . .” General Statutes (1918 Rev.) § 5388. When we construed this contractual language to deny benefits to a member of a municipal fire department in McDonald v. New Haven, supra, 417-18, however, the legislature expressly amended the definition to bypass the decisional law for a specific category of public positions. See General Statutes (1918 Rev.) § 5388, as amended by chapter 306, § 11 of the Public Acts of 1921. Each subsequent addition to the category of public positions evinces an intention on the part of the legislature carefully to circumscribe the expansion of named beneficiaries.13 The telling omission of judges of the Superior Court from this exclusive list of expressly included exceptions is persuasive evidence that the legislature did not intend the scope of § 31-275 (5) to embrace the judiciary.
[64]*64Our conclusion that the distinction between employment and public office is firmly embedded in our law of workers’ compensation does not conflict with the proposition that, in other circumstances, a public official may be considered an employee. “[A] municipal position, for certain purposes, may constitute a ‘public office’ and, for others, mere employment.” Murach v. Planning & Zoning Commission, supra, 200; State ex rel. Sloane v. Reidy, 152 Conn. 419, 426, 209 A.2d 674 (1965). With respect to judges of the Superior Court, and the Probate Court administrator, the legislature has determined, as General Statutes § 45-29u14 indicates, that they have the same entitlement to group life and health insurance as is expressly afforded to other state employees and members of the General Assembly by General Statutes §§ 5-25715 and 5-25916 [65]*65of the State Personnel Act. Workers’ compensation is not among the benefits enumerated in § 45-29u.
It bears noting, finally, that the legislature has enacted comprehensive provisions concerning benefits specifically for judges. General Statutes, chapter 872. These statutes not only provide annual salaries; General Statutes § 51-47;17 but include specific entitlements to disability retirement; General Statutes § 51-49; retirement salary and allowance to surviving spouses; General Statutes § 51-49f; and pensions for surviving spouses and children. General Statutes § 51-51. The legislature conspicuously failed to include workers’ compensation within the benefits conferred upon judges by chapter 872. Since the legislature is presumed to exercise its statutory authority with knowledge of existing statutes and with the intention of creating one consistent body of law; Shortt v. New Milford Police Department, 212 Conn. 294, 302, 562 A.2d 7 (1989); Commissioner v. Freedom of Information Commission, 204 Conn. 609, 621, 529 A.2d 692 (1987); it is reasonable to infer that the legislature would not have intended, sub silentio, to confer such a benefit upon the judiciary. The more rational explanation for the legis[66]*66lature’s silence is that the legislature concluded that it would be duplicative to provide both disability benefits and workers’ compensation benefits to these public officers.
To construe § 31-275 (5) to include members of the judiciary within the class of those entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits would constitute a radical departure from established policy. We will not infer that the legislature intended to enact a significant change in existing law without an unequivocally expressed manifestation of legislative intent. Iacomacci v. Trumbull, 209 Conn. 219, 222, 550 A.2d 640 (1988); Jennings v. Connecticut Light & Power Co., 140 Conn. 650, 667, 103 A.2d 535 (1954). Were this court to award compensation benefits to the spouse of a deceased judge, we “would be legislating by adding a new class to the coverage of this act which proclaims its limited scope.” Castro v. Viera, supra, 435. This we cannot do.
In response to the reservation from the compensation review division, whether a judge of the Superior Court is an “employee” for purposes of entitlement to workers’ compensation as defined by § 31-275 (5), we answer no.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.