ROBINSON, C.J.
**160This certified appeal requires us to consider the continued vitality of this court's decision in Spitzer v. Waterbury , 113 Conn. 84, 88, 154 A. 157 (1931), which held that "[t]he work of constructing drains and sewers, as well as that of keeping them in repair, is ministerial, and the municipality is responsible for negligence in its performance." The plaintiffs, Helen M. Northrup, George W. Northrup, and Timothy Northrup,1 brought this action against the defendants, the borough of Naugatuck (town) and several town officials,2 claiming, inter alia, that the defendants' negligence in maintaining and repairing the town's storm drains and drainage pipes had caused the repeated flooding of the plaintiffs' residence. The plaintiffs now appeal, upon our granting of their petition for certification, **1613 from the judgment of the Appellate Court affirming the trial court's granting of the defendant's motion for summary judgment on the ground that the negligence claims were barred because, under more recent cases refining and clarifying Spitzer , the maintenance of storm drains and drainage systems is a discretionary function subject to governmental immunity, rather than a ministerial function, the negligent performance of which can subject a municipality to liability. Northrup v. Witkowski , 175 Conn. App. 223, 250, 167 A.3d 443 (2017). We disagree with the plaintiffs' claim that the Appellate Court improperly failed to follow Spitzer because we conclude that decision must be overruled in light of modern case law governing the distinction between ministerial and discretionary duties. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.
The opinion of the Appellate Court aptly sets forth the following facts and procedural history. "The plaintiffs reside on property located in the town at 61 Nettleton Avenue. On eight different occasions between 2009 and 2012, the plaintiff's property *33was damaged when surface rainwater and/or 'black water'4 inundated the property because the single catch basins in the area routinely became clogged or inadequately redirected water away from the property.
"After the first occurrence in July, 2009, Helen ... contacted [James] Stewart, who, at that time, was **162the [town] engineer. He told her that the flooding was the result of a rare storm and that it would not happen again. Despite his assurance, however, flooding occurred again in October and December of that year. The plaintiffs continued to contact Stewart, to no avail. The plaintiffs made several requests to the town for sandbags; one such request was granted, but others were denied or simply ignored.
"The town received a report in October, 2009, from an engineering firm about the Nettleton Avenue neighborhood. The report indicated that, over the past forty years, many residences in the neighborhood had experienced periodic flooding of their properties following periods of heavy rainfall. It further indicated that the drainage system in the area was likely to experience flooding after rainfalls of two inches or more, which could occur several times a year. The report attributed the flooding to the fact that runoff was required to flow through relatively narrow drainpipes that were in poor to fair condition and that the majority of catch basins in the area were old and had small openings that often became overgrown with vegetation or obstructed by trash. The report recommended that the town construct new, larger storm drains to handle the storm runoff in the area, but the town failed to adopt that proposal. The plaintiffs' property flooded again in July of 2010, March and August of 2011, and June and September of 2012." (Footnote in original.) Id., at 226-27, 167 A.3d 443.
On June 4, 2013, the plaintiffs filed the operative second amended complaint alleging negligence against Henry J. Witkowski, Stewart, and the town, and recklessness against the individual defendants. See footnote 2 of this opinion. In addition, the plaintiffs alleged negligent infliction of emotional distress against Witkowski, Stewart, and the town.
"On October 30, 2015, the defendants filed [a] motion for summary judgment .... The defendants submitted **163a supporting memorandum of law, attached to which were partial transcripts from the depositions of Helen ... and the individual defendants, as well as an affidavit by Stewart. The defendants argued that the negligence counts, including those alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress, were barred by governmental immunity because they involved acts or omissions that required the exercise of judgment or discretion, and no other recognized exception to governmental immunity applied. The defendants further argued that the recklessness counts brought against the individual defendants also failed as a matter of law because, on the basis of the allegations and evidence presented, no reasonable fact finder could determine that the individual defendants had engaged in demonstrably reckless conduct.
"The plaintiffs filed an objection to the motion for summary judgment on November 18, 2015, arguing with respect to the negligence counts that there remained genuine issues of material fact as to whether the defendants were exercising *34ministerial or discretionary duties and, if discretionary, whether the identifiable person-imminent harm exception to governmental immunity applied." Northrup v. Witkowski , supra, 175 Conn. App. at 228-29, 167 A.3d 443.
"On January 20, 2016, the court issued a memorandum of decision granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts. With respect to the negligence counts, including those counts alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress, the court concluded that the plaintiffs' specifications of negligence amounted to a 'litany of discretionary omissions' and that their 'allegations boiled down to a claim that the defendants failed to perform their municipal duties in an appropriate manner.' The court determined that the city ordinance on which the plaintiffs relied in opposing summary judgment only set forth the general duties of **164the [streets commission] without any specific directions or mandates as to how those duties should be discharged." Id., at 230, 167 A.3d 443.
The trial court acknowledged this court's decision in Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, 113 Conn. at 88, 154 A. 157, holding that the repair and maintenance of drainage systems is a ministerial function, but concluded that more recent cases had "refined [the] analysis of the relationship and differences between ministerial and discretionary acts ...." Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , 135 Conn. App. 262, 272, 41 A.3d 1147 (2012). The trial court concluded that, under those more recent cases, the repair and maintenance of drainage systems are discretionary unless an ordinance "prescribe[s] the manner in which the drainage systems are to be maintained ...." (Emphasis in original.)
"Accordingly, the court concluded that the defendants' acts or omissions in maintaining the town's drainage system were discretionary in nature. Furthermore, the court concluded that the identifiable person-imminent harm exception to discretionary act immunity was inapplicable as a matter of law because the risk of the property flooding at any given time was indefinite and, thus, did not constitute an imminent harm. The court also granted summary judgment with respect to the recklessness counts, concluding that they also were barred by governmental immunity.
"The plaintiffs filed a motion to reargue and for reconsideration, which the defendants opposed. The court denied the plaintiffs' motion, and [the plaintiffs' appeal to the Appellate Court] followed."5 Northrup v. Witkowski , supra, 175 Conn. App. at 230, 167 A.3d 443.
**165The Appellate Court held that "to demonstrate the existence of a ministerial duty on the part of a municipality and its agents, a plaintiff ordinarily must point to some statute, city charter provision, ordinance, regulation, rule, policy, or other directive that, by its clear language, compels a municipal employee to act in a prescribed *35manner, without the exercise of judgment or discretion. See Violano v. Fernandez , 280 Conn. 310, 323, 907 A.2d 1188 (2006) ; Evon v. Andrews , 211 Conn. 501, 506-507, 559 A.2d 1131 (1989) ; DiMiceli v. Cheshire , [162 Conn. App. 216, 224-25, 131 A.3d 771 (2016) ]; Grignano v. Milford , 106 Conn. App. 648, 659-60, 943 A.2d 507 (2008)." Northrup v. Witkowski , supra, 175 Conn. App. at 235, 167 A.3d 443. The court ultimately concluded that, "although there is language in § 16-32 of the [Naugatuck Code of Ordinances] that requires the streets commission to maintain and repair the town's storm water sewer system, the ordinance contains no provisions that mandate the time or manner in which those responsibilities are to be executed, leaving such details to the discretion and judgment of the municipal employees." Id., at 238, 167 A.3d 443.
The Appellate Court then acknowledged this court's statement in Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, 113 Conn. at 88, 154 A. 157, that the repair and maintenance of drains and sewers are ministerial functions, but it concluded that Spitzer was distinguishable on its facts because it involved only the question of whether a drainage system "as it was planned could handle even ordinary amounts of rain," not whether the city had properly maintained and cleaned the system. Northrup v. Witkowski , supra, 175 Conn. App. at 239, 167 A.3d 443. In addition, the Appellate Court concluded **166that the statement in Spitzer was dictum. Id., at 241, 167 A.3d 443. The Appellate Court concluded that, "[c]onsidered in light of our modern case law analyzing qualified governmental immunity, we are convinced that the [trial] court correctly determined that there was no genuine issue of material fact to be resolved with respect to whether the alleged[ly] negligent acts or omissions of the defendants were discretionary in nature and, thus, subject to immunity." Id., at 242, 167 A.3d 443. Accordingly, the Appellate Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Id., at 250, 167 A.3d 443. This certified appeal followed.6 See footnote 3 of this opinion.
On appeal to this court, the plaintiffs contend that the Appellate Court incorrectly determined both that Spitzer is distinguishable on its facts and that this court's statement in Spitzer that the repair and maintenance of drains and sewers are ministerial functions was dictum. Rather, they argue that Spitzer is directly on point and is binding authority for the proposition that the duty of a municipality to maintain and repair its drainage system is ministerial and, therefore, that the negligent performance of that duty will subject the municipality to liability. We conclude that we need not determine whether the language in Spitzer was dictum because, even if it was not, Spitzer must be overruled in light of more modern case law and statutes governing the distinction between ministerial and discretionary duties. We further conclude that the Appellate Court correctly determined that, under those more modern cases, the town's duty to maintain and repair its drainage system was discretionary and, therefore, subject to governmental immunity.
**167As a preliminary matter, we set forth the standard of review. "Summary judgment shall be rendered forth-with if the pleadings, affidavits and other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.... The scope of our appellate review depends upon the proper *36characterization of the rulings made by the trial court.... When ... the trial court draws conclusions of law, our review is plenary and we must decide whether its conclusions are legally and logically correct and find support in the facts that appear in the record." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Meyers v. Livingston, Adler, Pulda, Meiklejohn & Kelly, P.C. , 311 Conn. 282, 289-90, 87 A.3d 534 (2014).
We next review the law governing governmental immunity. "The [common-law] doctrines that determine the tort liability of municipal employees are well established.... Generally, a municipal employee is liable for the misperformance of ministerial acts, but has a qualified immunity in the performance of governmental acts.... Governmental acts are performed wholly for the direct benefit of the public and are supervisory or discretionary in nature.... The hallmark of a discretionary act is that it requires the exercise of judgment.... In contrast, [m]inisterial refers to a duty which is to be performed in a prescribed manner without the exercise of judgment or discretion." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Violano v. Fernandez , supra, 280 Conn. at 318, 907 A.2d 1188.
"The tort liability of a municipality has been codified in [General Statutes] § 52-557n. Section 52-557n (a) (1) provides that '[e]xcept as otherwise provided by law, a political subdivision of the state shall be liable for damages to person or property caused by: (A) The negligent acts or omissions of such political subdivision or any employee, officer or agent thereof acting within **168the scope of his employment or official duties ....' Section 52-557n (a) (2) (B) extends, however, the same discretionary act immunity that applies to municipal officials to the municipalities themselves by providing that they will not be liable for damages caused by 'negligent acts or omissions which require the exercise of judgment or discretion as an official function of the authority expressly or impliedly granted by law.' " Id., at 320, 907 A.2d 1188.
"Municipal officials are immunized from liability for negligence arising out of their discretionary acts in part because of the danger that a more expansive exposure to liability would cramp the exercise of official discretion beyond the limits desirable in our society.... Discretionary act immunity reflects a value judgment that-despite injury to a member of the public-the broader interest in having government officers and employees free to exercise judgment and discretion in their official functions, unhampered by fear of second-guessing and retaliatory lawsuits, outweighs the benefits to be had from imposing liability for that injury.... In contrast, municipal officers are not immune from liability for negligence arising out of their ministerial acts, defined as acts to be performed in a prescribed manner without the exercise of judgment or discretion.... This is because society has no analogous interest in permitting municipal officers to exercise judgment in the performance of ministerial acts." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 318-19, 907 A.2d 1188.
"This court has identified two other policy rationales for immunizing municipalities and their officials from tort liability. The first rationale is grounded in the principle that for courts to second-guess municipal policy making by imposing tort liability would be to take the administration of municipal affairs out of the hands to which it has been entrusted by law.... Second, we have recognized that a civil trial may be an inappropriate **169forum for testing the wisdom of legislative actions. This is particularly true if there is no readily ascertainable standard by which the action of the government servant may *37be measured .... Thus, [t]he policy behind the exception is to avoid allowing tort actions to be used as a monkey wrench in the machinery of government decision making." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 319 n.7, 907 A.2d 1188.
For purposes of determining whether a duty is discretionary or ministerial, this court has recognized that "[t]here is a difference between laws that impose general duties on officials and those that mandate a particular response to specific conditions." Bonington v. Westport , 297 Conn. 297, 308, 999 A.2d 700 (2010). "A ministerial act is one which a person performs in a given state of facts, in a prescribed manner, in obedience to the mandate of legal authority, without regard to or the exercise of his own judgment [or discretion] upon the propriety of the act being done."7 (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Blake v. Mason , 82 Conn. 324, 327, 73 A. 782 (1909) ; see also Benedict v. Norfolk , 296 Conn. 518, 520 n.4, 997 A.2d 449 (2010) (municipal acts are "deemed ministerial if a policy or rule limiting discretion in the completion of such acts exists"); Pluhowsky v. New Haven , 151 Conn. 337, 347, 197 A.2d 645 (1964) (describing ministerial acts in similar terms). In contrast, when an official has a general duty to perform **170a certain act, but there is no "city charter provision, ordinance, regulation, rule, policy, or any other directive [requiring the government official to act in a] prescribed manner," the duty is deemed discretionary. Violano v. Fernandez , supra, 280 Conn. at 323, 907 A.2d 1188.
"In general, the exercise of duties involving inspection, maintenance and repair of hazards are considered discretionary acts entitled to governmental immunity." Grignano v. Milford , supra, 106 Conn. App. at 656, 943 A.2d 507. This is so because there ordinarily is no legal directive mandating the specific manner in which officials must perform these tasks. Rather, "[a] municipality necessarily makes discretionary policy decisions with respect to the timing, frequency, method and extent of inspections, maintenance and repairs." Id. ; see also Bonington v. Westport , supra, 297 Conn. at 308-309, 999 A.2d 700 (when plaintiff claimed that defendants had improperly or inadequately inspected neighboring property for zoning violations, alleged acts of negligence constituted discretionary acts because no legal authority mandated inspection to be performed in prescribed manner); Martel v. Metropolitan District Commission , 275 Conn. 38, 50-51, 881 A.2d 194 (2005) (in absence of any policy or directive requiring defendants to design, supervise, inspect and maintain trail on defendant's property, defendants "were engaged in duties that inherently required the exercise of judgment," and, therefore, those duties were discretionary in nature); Evon v. Andrews , supra, 211 Conn. at 506-507, 559 A.2d 1131 (defendants' acts were discretionary in nature *38because what constitutes reasonable, proper or adequate fire safety inspection to ensure that multi-family residence was in compliance with state and local building codes involves exercise of judgment); Pluhowsky v. New Haven , supra, 151 Conn. at 347-48, 197 A.2d 645 (in absence of any legal directive requiring defendants to repair malfunctioning catch basin under specific conditions or in particular manner, duty was discretionary); **171Grignano v. Milford , supra, at 656-57, 943 A.2d 507 (ordinance requiring owner of maritime facility to maintain physical improvements in safe condition imposed discretionary duty because ordinance did not "[prescribe] the manner in which the defendant is to perform reasonable and proper inspection and maintenance activities"); Segreto v. Bristol , 71 Conn. App. 844, 857-58, 804 A.2d 928 (city's allegedly negligent design and maintenance of stairwell located on premises of senior center that was owned and operated by city was discretionary because determinations of what is reasonable or proper under particular set of circumstances necessarily involve exercise of judgment), cert. denied, 261 Conn. 941, 808 A.2d 1132 (2002).
Consistent with these principles, the Appellate Court concluded in Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , supra, 135 Conn. App. at 273, 41 A.3d 1147, that the maintenance of storm drains is discretionary in nature. See also Brusby v. Metropolitan District , 160 Conn. App. 638, 656, 127 A.3d 257 (2015) (in absence of legal directive prescribing manner in which sanitary sewer system was to be maintained or repaired, duty was discretionary). In Silberstein , the plaintiffs owned property in the Hillcrest Park neighborhood of Old Greenwich. Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , supra, at 264, 41 A.3d 1147. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, the Hillcrest Park Tax District (tax district) and Hillcrest Park Association, Inc., which were responsible for maintaining and constructing roads and storm sewers in the Hillcrest neighborhood, had negligently failed to do so, resulting in the periodic flooding of the plaintiffs' property. Id., at 264-65, 41 A.3d 1147. The trial court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment on the ground of governmental immunity. Id., at 267, 41 A.3d 1147. On appeal, the Appellate Court noted that, although the tax district's bylaws stated clearly that one of the functions of that organization was "to construct and maintain roads ... drains, **172[and] storm sewers"; (internal quotation marks omitted) id., at 273, 41 A.3d 1147 ; the bylaws did not "prescribe the manner in which the roads and drainage systems [were] to be maintained, and there [was] no evidence in the record of any procedure or directive governing the manner of their maintenance." (Emphasis in original.) Id. Accordingly, the court concluded that "the manner in which the defendants discharge their duty to maintain the roads and drainage systems plainly involves the exercise of judgment and discretion," and the duty was, therefore, discretionary. Id.
Like the plaintiffs in the present case, the plaintiffs in Silberstein had relied on this court's statement in Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, 113 Conn. at 88, 154 A. 157, that "[t]he work of constructing drains and sewers, as well as that of keeping them in repair, is ministerial, and the municipality is responsible for negligence in its performance" to support their contention to the contrary. Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , supra, 135 Conn. App. at 272, 41 A.3d 1147. In Silberstein , the Appellate Court concluded that Spitzer was distinguishable on the ground that this court had concluded in Spitzer that "a municipality's construction and repair of storm water sewers and drains [were] ministerial because [they were] 'incidental to'
*39the municipality's statutorily imposed duty to maintain its streets and highways.... The court [in Spitzer ] reasoned: 'The duty imposed by statute upon the municipality to maintain the highways within its limits makes it necessary for the municipality to dispose of all surface water falling upon them.' ... Thus, the municipality was legally obligated to maintain and repair the drains. In contrast to the municipality in Spitzer , the defendants in [ Silberstein were] not charged with having failed to fulfill a duty that was imposed upon them by statute. Rather, the plaintiffs claim[ed] that the defendants negligently failed to carry out a duty that they assumed pursuant to the tax district **173bylaws. The tax district bylaws, however, [did] not prescribe the specific manner in which the duty to maintain and repair the roads, drains and storm sewers is to be performed." (Citations omitted; emphasis in original.) Id., at 272, 41 A.3d 1147, quoting Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, at 87-88, 154 A. 157.
The plaintiffs in the present case contend that Spitzer is controlling because, as in that case-unlike Silberstein -the duty of the defendants to repair and maintain the drainage system "originate[s] from the General Statutes, which require Connecticut municipalities to maintain the highways within their limits."8 The plaintiffs further contend that Silberstein is distinguishable because the plaintiffs in that case alleged that the defendants had negligently failed to install a properly functioning drainage system, and "the decision to build or construct storm water systems is almost universally held to be a governmental discretionary act." (Emphasis added.) In contrast, the plaintiffs in the present case allege that the defendants failed to adequately maintain and repair the storm drainage system, which, they argue are ministerial duties. We disagree with both of these claims.
We first address the plaintiffs' contention that the defendants' duty to maintain and repair the sewer system is ministerial because it derives from statute rather from the town's own ordinances or rules. As we have indicated, the Appellate Court also made this distinction in Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , supra, 135 Conn. App. at 272, 41 A.3d 1147. In support of the proposition **174that a duty imposed on a municipality by statute is necessarily ministerial, whereas a duty voluntarily assumed by the municipality is discretionary, the Appellate Court cited only this court's statement in Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, 113 Conn. at 87, 154 A. 157, that "[t]he duty imposed by statute upon the municipality to maintain the highways within its limits makes it necessary for the municipality to dispose of all surface water falling upon them." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , supra, at 272, 41 A.3d 1147. In turn, Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, at 87, 154 A. 157, supported that proposition with a citation to Bronson v. Wallingford , 54 Conn. 513, 519-20, 9 A. 393 (1887), in which this court suggested, in dictum and without citation to any authority, that a municipality may be held liable for damages caused while *40carrying out its statutory duty to dispose of surface waters falling on its highways, whereas it would be immune from liability for acts performed pursuant to a duty imposed by the city charter in the absence of any charter provision providing a remedy.9 **175Other cases predating Spitzer present a mirror image of this proposition, however, and hold that municipalities may not be held liable when they violate public duties that have been imposed on them by the state, whereas municipalities can be held liable for the violation of duties that they voluntarily take upon themselves. In Jones v. New Haven , 34 Conn. 1, 13 (1867), this court stated that "[w]henever a public duty is imposed upon a town ... without its consent, express or implied, such town ... is not liable to an action for negligence in respect to such duty, unless a right of action is given by statute." (Emphasis added.) In contrast, "when a grant is made to a [municipality] of some special power or privilege at its request , out of which public duties grow; and when some special duty is imposed upon a [municipality] not belonging to it under the general law with its consent ; in these and like cases, if the corporation is guilty of negligence in the discharge of such duty, thereby causing injury to another, it is liable to an action in favor of the party injured." (Emphasis added.) Id., at 14 ; see also Dyer v. Danbury , 85 Conn. 128, 131, 81 A. 958 (1911) (same). There are also cases predating Spitzer holding that acts performed pursuant to voluntarily assumed duties may be governmental and, therefore, immune from liability, as well as acts performed pursuant to duties imposed by statute. See Hannon v. Waterbury , 106 Conn. 13, 17, 136 A. 876 (1927) ("Whether the duty is directly imposed upon the city or permissive, that is, one which it voluntarily assumed ... does not change the character of the act or function. The duty in either case will be governmental if the nature and character of [the] act or function be such."); Pope v. New Haven , 91 Conn. 79, 82, 99 A. 51 (1916) (function may be governmental regardless of whether "the legislature determines the necessity and expediency of the act to be performed" or "the necessity and expediency are left to be determined **176by the municipality"). We are aware of no authority other than the court's unsupported dictum in Bronson v. Wallingford, supra, 54 Conn. at 519-20, 9 A. 393, however, that would support Spitzer 's suggestion that a duty imposed by statute, as distinct from a duty that is voluntarily assumed by the municipality, is by virtue of that fact ministerial.
In any event, the distinction applied by the court in Jones and Dyer has *41been superseded by more recent developments in municipal law and the law governing governmental immunity. As the Appellate Court recognized in Roman v. Stamford , 16 Conn. App. 213, 219, 547 A.2d 97 (1988), aff'd, 211 Conn. 396, 559 A.2d 710 (1989), "[u]nlike the Dyer and Jones doctrine of assumption of municipal liability based upon a charter provision, the modern construct of municipal liability rests upon distinctly different considerations." See also id., at 218-19, 547 A.2d 97 ("construct [set forth in Jones and Dyer ], wherein special powers are granted to or imposed upon the municipality, harkens back to the days before the advent of the principle of home rule" and, therefore, is no longer "a valid conceptualization of the doctrine of actionable private duties of a municipality").10 Specifically, **177under modern principles of governmental immunity, the salient consideration in determining whether a municipal duty is discretionary or ministerial is not whether the duty was imposed on the municipality by statute or voluntarily assumed pursuant to its own ordinances or regulations, but whether there is any statute, "city charter provision, ordinance, regulation, rule, policy, or any other directive [requiring the government official to act in a ] prescribed manner ." (Emphasis added.) Violano v. Fernandez , supra, 280 Conn. at 323, 907 A.2d 1188 ; see also Roman v. Stamford , supra, at 221, 547 A.2d 97 (under modern principles of governmental immunity, "[a] ministerial act, as opposed to a discretionary act, refers to [one] which is to be performed in a prescribed manner without the exercise of judgment or discretion" [internal quotation marks omitted] ). Accordingly, we disagree with the plaintiffs' argument that Silberstein v. 54 Hillcrest Park Associates, LLC , supra, 135 Conn. App. at 272, 41 A.3d 1147, is not controlling because, unlike in Silberstein , the defendants' duty in the present case was imposed by statute. *42We next address the plaintiffs' argument that, in contrast to the design of storm water drainage systems, the duty to repair and maintain such systems is ministerial. **178In support of this claim, the plaintiffs rely on several cases from other jurisdictions. The holdings of those cases, however, can be traced to the outmoded distinction between duties that are imposed on municipalities and those that they voluntarily assume. See Johnston v. District of Columbia , 118 U.S. 19, 21, 6 S. Ct. 923, 30 L. Ed. 75 (1886) (repair of sanitary sewer is ministerial duty), citing Child v. Boston , 86 Mass. 41, 52 (1862) (municipality is not liable for defective sanitary sewer plan because creation of plan involved duty of quasi-judicial nature, but could be held liable for negligent care and maintenance of sanitary sewers because those duties were not imposed by legislative authority for public purposes but were voluntarily assumed by municipality); Barton v. Syracuse , 36 N.Y. 54, 54 (1867) (municipality was liable for negligent failure to repair sanitary sewers because it voluntarily accepted duty and assessed costs on beneficiaries);11 Portsmouth v. Mitchell Mfg. Co. , 113 Ohio St. 250, 255-56, 148 N.E. 846 (1925) (citing Barton and concluding that municipality cannot be held liable for failure to construct storm sewer but can be held liable for failure to keep storm sewer in repair). In addition, all of these cases either involved or relied on cases involving the maintenance and repair of sanitary sewers, which, unlike the maintenance and repair of storm sewers, arguably may be a proprietary function under certain circumstances, even under more modern case law.12 See footnote 10 of this opinion. **179We recognize that, for purposes of imposing liability on a municipality, some Connecticut cases predating Spitzer made the distinction between a municipality's duty to construct roads and sidewalks, and, by extension, the storm drains and sewers that are required to ensure that the roads are functional, as opposed to a duty of maintenance and repair. In Hoyt v. Danbury , 69 Conn. 341, 351, 37 A. 1051 (1897), for example, this court observed that a municipality's statutory obligation to provide highways "carried with it the correlative right of determining the mode of their construction," and "[a]s to which, out of any appropriate *43modes of building the particular sidewalk in question, was to be chosen, it was for the borough to decide; and so long as the mode selected was an appropriate and lawful one, its decision was not subject to collateral review in a suit of this nature." In other words, Hoyt recognized that the construction of highways is a discretionary function. As to highway repairs , this court noted that municipal liability for the failure to keep roads in good repair had been imposed by statute, now codified at General Statutes § 13a-149,13 "since early colonial times." Id. The highway defect statute, however, waives governmental immunity from claims by travelers on the **180highway arising from highway defects. See McIntosh v. Sullivan , 274 Conn. 262, 282, 875 A.2d 459 (2005) (highway defect statute at issue in Hoyt "abrogated governmental immunity"). Put differently, the highway defect statute does not impose a ministerial duty to repair highways, so that a municipality may be held liable to abutting landowners for breach of that duty. See Aerotec Corp. v. Greenwich , 138 Conn. 116, 119, 82 A.2d 356 (1951) (highway defect statute "provides no right of recovery to an abutting landowner for damage from a defective highway"). Thus, the distinction made in Hoyt between the construction of highways and their repair, which was premised on the highway defect statute, is consistent with the modern rule distinguishing "laws that impose general duties on officials," which impose discretionary duties, "and those that mandate a particular response to specific conditions," which impose ministerial duties. Bonington v. Westport , supra, 297 Conn. at 308, 999 A.2d 700.
The authority that Spitzer itself cited in support of its statement that the duty to construct and repair drainage systems is ministerial also can be at least partially reconciled with the modern rule. In Spitzer , this court relied on a treatise on Municipal Corporations authored by John F. Dillon. See Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, 113 Conn. at 88, 154 A. 157, citing 4 J. Dillon, Commentaries on the Law of Municipal Corporations (5th Ed. 1911) §§ 1742 and 1743, pp. 3054-57. That treatise states the following: "[A] municipal corporation is liable for negligence in the ministerial duty to keep its sewers ... in repair ...." (Emphasis in original.) 4 J. Dillon, supra, § 1742, p. 3055. A careful review of the treatise, however, reveals that this statement was at least partially premised on the principle that municipalities are "bound to preserve and keep in repair erections [they have] constructed, so that they shall not become a source **181of nuisance to others."14 (Emphasis altered; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. Consistent with this principle, it is well established in this state that "towns will not be justified in doing an act lawful in itself in such a manner as to create a nuisance, any more than individuals. And if a nuisance is thus created, whereby another suffer[s] damage, towns like individuals are responsible." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hoffman v. Bristol , 113 Conn. 386, 390, 155 A. 499 (1931) ; accord Keeney v. Old Saybrook , 237 Conn. 135, 165, 676 A.2d 795 (1996) ("a municipality may be liable for a nuisance it creates through its negligent misfeasance or nonfeasance"); *44Wright v. Brown , 167 Conn. 464, 470, 356 A.2d 176 (1975) ("[l]iability in nuisance can be imposed on a municipality only if the condition constituting the nuisance was created by the positive act of the municipality"); Prifty v. Waterbury , 133 Conn. 654, 657, 54 A.2d 260 (1947) ("the rule which exempts municipalities from liability when their employees are acting in discharge of a public duty does not relieve them from liability for the consequences of particular acts which the municipality has directed to be performed and which, from their character or the manner in which they are so ordered to be executed, will naturally work a direct injury to others or create a nuisance"); Colwell v. Waterbury , 74 Conn. 568, 572-73, 51 A. 530 (1902) (same); Judd v. Hartford , 72 Conn. 350, 354, 44 A. 510 (1899) (although duty to construct sewer was governmental, municipality could be held liable for negligent failure to remove temporary obstructions after construction because failure to do so turned "city property into a nuisance"); Mootry v. Danbury , 45 Conn. 550, 556 (1878) (when town constructed bridge over stream that blocked water flow, causing plaintiff's upstream **182property to flood, it may be held liable because "towns will not be justified in doing an act lawful in itself in such a manner as to create a nuisance, any more than individuals").15
The fact that a municipality may be liable for creating a nuisance, however, does not necessarily mean-at least not under our more recent cases-that the act that created the nuisance was ministerial in nature. Indeed, this court has held that "a municipality may be liable for a nuisance ... even if [its] misfeasance or nonfeasance also constitutes negligence from which the municipality would be immune" because the municipality was engaged in a discretionary function.16
**183Keeney v. Old Saybrook , supra, 237 Conn. at 165, 676 A.2d 795 ; but see Judd v. Hartford , supra, 72 Conn. at 353-54, 44 A. 510 (duty to *45remove temporary obstructions from sewer so as to prevent creation of nuisance was ministerial).
In other words, unlike Dillon's treatise, which seems to suggest that ministerial acts are the only acts for which a municipality may be held liable and, therefore, that if a municipality can be held liable for creating a nuisance, the municipal function that resulted in the creation of the nuisance must be a ministerial one, our more recent cases have treated nuisance and the violation of a ministerial duty as entirely distinct theories of municipal liability.17 See Grady v. Somers , 294 Conn. 324, 335 n.10, 984 A.2d 684 (2009) (governmental immunity does not apply to claims alleging "[1] liability in nuisance, which [may] be imposed ... only if the condition constituting the nuisance was created by the positive act of the municipality; and [2] the negligent performance of ministerial acts" [internal quotation **184marks omitted] ); see also Keeney v. Old Saybrook , supra, 237 Conn. at 165, 676 A.2d 795. Accordingly, although we agree with Dillon's treatise to the extent that it recognizes that there are situations in which a municipality may be held liable for damage caused by a storm sewer system that the municipality was responsible for maintaining and repairing-namely, when the municipality's positive act has created a nuisance-we do not agree with its suggested inference from that proposition, namely, that the duty to maintain and repair storm sewers is necessarily ministerial.18 Indeed, if that were the *46case, municipalities could be held liable for any damage caused by their failure to maintain and repair storm sewer systems, even if the "positive act" element of nuisance were not satisfied. See Wright v. Brown , supra, 167 Conn. at 470, 356 A.2d 176 ("[l]iability in nuisance can be imposed on a municipality only if the condition constituting the nuisance was created by the positive act of the municipality"). **185We therefore disagree with the plaintiffs' argument that, in determining whether a municipality's duty with respect to its storm drains and sewers is ministerial or discretionary, the relevant considerations are (1) whether the duty was imposed by statute or, instead, was voluntarily assumed by the town, and (2) whether the municipality was constructing the sewers or, instead, was maintaining or repairing them. Rather, the relevant consideration under well established modern principles of governmental immunity remains whether the duty was a general one or, instead, whether there was a "city charter provision, ordinance, regulation, rule, policy, or any other directive [requiring the government official to act in a] prescribed manner." Violano v. Fernandez , supra, 280 Conn. at 323, 907 A.2d 1188 ; see also Bonington v. Westport , supra, 297 Conn. at 308, 999 A.2d 700 ("[t]here is a difference between laws that impose general duties on officials and those that mandate a particular response to specific conditions"). To the extent that Spitzer v. Waterbury , supra, 113 Conn. at 84, 154 A. 157, held otherwise, it is hereby overruled.
We conclude, therefore, that the defendants in the present case may be held liable to the plaintiffs only if there was some legal directive prescribing the specific manner in which they were required to maintain and repair the town's storm sewer system. As we have indicated, the Appellate Court concluded that, "although there is language in § 16-32 of the [Naugatuck Code of Ordinances] that requires the streets commission to maintain and repair the town's storm water sewer system, the ordinance contains no provisions that mandate the time or manner in which those responsibilities are to be executed, leaving such details to the discretion and judgment of the municipal employees."19
**186Northrup v. Witkowski , supra, 175 Conn. App. at 238, 167 A.3d 443. The plaintiffs do not challenge the Appellate Court's conclusion that the language of that ordinance does not, in and of itself, create a ministerial duty.
Instead, the plaintiffs claim that Witkowski's deposition testimony that the streets commission had developed a schedule to ensure that every catch basin was maintained at least once a year and that, "if there were calls from the public about a *47basin being blocked or a bad situation that needed to be addressed, we would attempt to do that," established the existence of a rule or policy that limited the streets commission's discretionary authority under § 16-32 of the Naugatuck Code of Ordinances and thereby created a ministerial duty.20 In support of this claim, the plaintiffs argue that, in **187Mills v. Solution, LLC , 138 Conn. App. 40, 51-52, 50 A.3d 381, cert. denied, 307 Conn. 928, 55 A.3d 570 (2012), the Appellate Court held that, although the use of the mandatory language "shall" in a statute does not necessarily create a ministerial duty, if the municipality has a policy or rule limiting the discretion of public officials in the performance of a mandatory duty that would otherwise be discretionary, the duty is ministerial.21 We are not persuaded that this is a correct interpretation of Mills . Rather, Mills is more reasonably interpreted as holding that mandatory statutory language is not sufficient to create a ministerial duty unless the statute itself limits discretion in the performance of the mandatory act. See id., at 52, 50 A.3d 381 ("[w]here the text of the statute explicitly vests the chief of police with the discretion to determine when and how to furnish police protection, we decline to hold that the same statute imposes a ministerial duty on the chief of police to furnish the protection he deems, in his discretion, to be necessary").
We need not decide, however, whether the existence of a municipal agency's "policy or rule" that limits the agency's discretion in performing a duty imposed by ordinance or statute can ever convert a duty that otherwise would be discretionary into a ministerial duty because, even if we were to assume, without deciding, that there are circumstances under which it can, we **188conclude that Witkowski's testimony would not be sufficient to establish the existence of such a policy or rule in the present case. This court previously *48has held that a municipality may be held liable for the negligent performance of a duty only if the "the official's duty is clearly ministerial." (Emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted.) Bonington v. Westport , supra, 297 Conn. at 308, 999 A.2d 700. We conclude that neither the creation of a schedule for cleaning all catch basins at least once per year, nor the practice of attempting to respond to every complaint about malfunctioning storm drains, constitutes a "policy or rule" converting the discretionary duty to carry out the functions mandated by § 16-32 of the Naugatuck Code of Ordinances into a clear ministerial duty. If we were to conclude otherwise, virtually any attempt by a municipal agency to ensure that its discretionary duties are regularly and properly carried out would convert its discretionary duty into a ministerial duty, thereby creating a disincentive for municipal agencies to make such attempts and undermining the very policy considerations that the doctrine governmental immunity was intended to advance. See Violano v. Fernandez , supra, 280 Conn. at 319, 907 A.2d 1188 ("[d]iscretionary act immunity reflects a value judgment that-despite injury to a member of the public-the broader interest in having government officers and employees free to exercise judgment and discretion in their official functions, unhampered by fear of second-guessing and retaliatory lawsuits, outweighs the benefits to be had from imposing liability for that injury" [internal quotation marks omitted] ).
For similar reasons, we reject the plaintiffs' claim that the defendants violated a ministerial duty when they completely failed to perform any maintenance or repair of some storm drains and catch basins. In support of this claim, the plaintiffs rely on this court's decision in Evon v. Andrews , supra, 211 Conn. at 506, 559 A.2d 1131, in which **189we noted that the plaintiffs had not alleged that "the defendants failed to inspect the dwelling" but that they had "failed to make reasonable and proper inspections ...." (Emphasis in original; internal quotation marks omitted.) The plaintiffs contend that this implies that municipalities have no discretion to completely fail to perform a mandatory duty, even if the manner of carrying out the duty is discretionary. We disagree. First, the plaintiffs have cited no evidence that would support a finding that there are town storm drains and catch basins that the defendants have never maintained or repaired, and the frequency of maintenance and repair is discretionary. See Grignano v. Milford , supra, 106 Conn. App. at 656, 943 A.2d 507 ("[a] municipality necessarily makes discretionary policy decisions with respect to the timing, frequency , method and extent of inspections, maintenance and repairs" [emphasis added] ). Second, even if we were to assume that the defendants never maintained or repaired certain storm drains and catch basins, we cannot conclude that, in a system as large and complex as a municipal storm drainage system, the duty to maintain and repair the system encompasses a judicially enforceable duty to maintain and repair each individual component of the system, regardless of the needs of the system as a whole. It is not the function of this court to second-guess the administration of such complex municipal affairs, particularly when "there is no readily ascertainable standard by which the action of the government servant may be measured ...."22 **190(Internal quotation marks omitted.) *49Violano v. Fernandez , supra, 280 Conn. at 319 n.7, 907 A.2d 1188.
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the defendants' duty to maintain and repair the town's storm drains and sewers was discretionary and that the Appellate Court properly upheld the trial court's granting of the defendant's motion for summary judgment on the ground of governmental immunity.
The judgment of the Appellate Court is affirmed.
In this opinion PALMER, McDONALD, D'AURIA and KAHN, Js., concurred.