Brass City Local, CT Alliance of City Police v. Waterbury

Syllabus

The plaintiff police union sought to vacate an arbitration award in its favor issued in connection with the defendant city's alleged breach of a collec- tive bargaining agreement. Although the plaintiff had proposed a remedy for the violation of the agreement to include back pay and benefits, the arbitration panel did not include an award of damages. Initially, in a first memorandum of decision, the trial court determined that, although it could not vacate the arbitration award, the matter should be remanded to the arbitration panel for further proceedings because it appeared that the panel may have ignored important evidence in the record. Following a response and clarification from the panel, the trial court, in a second memorandum of decision, granted the plaintiff's motion to vacate the arbitration award, and the defendant appealed to this court. Held that the trial court erred by granting the plaintiff's motion to vacate the arbitration award: in light of the trial court's conclusions in its first memorandum of decision, that the conclusion of the panel to deny an award of damages was neither inconsistent with the plain language of the parties' agreement nor was it inconsistent with logic and reason to deny payment for work not performed, and its determination that the panel did not violate clear public policy to warrant vacating the arbitra- tion award, the panel's award was a mutual, final and definite award and there was no basis for the court to remand the matter for further consideration of the evidence or the legal questions involved; accord- ingly, the court should have denied the plaintiff's motion to vacate in light of the conclusions set forth in its first memorandum of decision. Argued April 14—officially released September 14, 2021