Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities v. Travelers Indemnity Co.

Syllabus

In each of two cases, the plaintiff Commission on Human Rights and Opportu- nities filed an administrative appeal in the Superior Court from a decision of its human rights referee dismissing a complaint for age discrimination per se in violation of statute (§ 46a-60 (b) (6)) against each defendant, an insurance company and a university. The complainant, who was in his fifties, had alleged that each defendant's use of the phrase ''recent college graduates'' or ''recent graduate'' in published job advertisements were writ- ten so as to discriminate against individuals on the basis of age. The trial court found that those phrases were not a proxy for age because a recent college graduate can be of any age and rendered judgment in each case dismissing the appeal. In separate appeals to this court, the plaintiff claimed that the trial court improperly concluded that each defendant had not engaged in age discrimination per se in violation of § 46a-60 (b) (6). Held: The defendant in each case could not prevail on its claims that the trial court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the plaintiff's administra- tive appeal, as the matter was not moot because the insurance company no longer used the phrase ''recent college graduates'' in its advertisements, the plaintiff's standing to bring the administrative appeal was not dependent on the complainant's standing, despite the latter having abandoned his failure to hire claim and his failure to participate in these appeals, and the plaintiff had statutory (§ 46a-82 (b)) standing, having made a colorable claim that each defendant had engaged in a discriminatory practice that affected the interests of the complainant and others. The trial court did not err in resolving the plaintiff's claim that the referee had improperly decided the case, as it properly analyzed and resolved the plaintiff's claim that the job posting amounted to age discrimination per se, having properly concluded that the phrases ''recent college gradu