Cruz v. Waterbury

Citations

• 235 Conn. App. 259

Syllabus

The plaintiff, a former Waterbury police officer who suffered a work-related injury, appealed from the trial court's judgment dismissing in part and deny- ing in part his administrative appeal from the decision of the defendant Retirement Board of the City of Waterbury, which had denied his application for a disability pension, and from the court's judgment dismissing his breach of contract claim with respect to the board and denying that claim with respect to the defendant city. The plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the court committed plain error by failing to consider and analyze an allegedly applicable statute (§ 31-71f) regarding certain information an employer must provide to employees, which the parties did not raise in their arguments before the court. Held: This court declined to reach the merits of the plaintiff's claim regarding the trial court's failure to consider § 31-71f, as the plaintiff failed to adequately brief it. The trial court did not improperly deny the plaintiff's administrative appeal from the board's denial of his application for disability retirement and pen- sion benefits, the court having properly determined that the plaintiff did not have a ''work-related disability'' as defined under the city's ordinances (§§ 35.035 and 35.073), as there was substantial evidence that the city intended to and did offer the plaintiff a qualifying job pursuant to § 35.035 that he could perform. The board properly did not award any retroactive payments under § 35.073 of the city's ordinances, as it determined that the plaintiff was not eligible for disability benefits. The plaintiff's claim that § 35.035 of the city's ordinances required the city to offer him a job with a base pay rate of at least 75 percent of his total compensation as a police officer, not his base pay rate, was unsupported by the language of the ordinance. The trial court properly dismissed the administrative appeal with respect to the city, as the plaintiff provided no legal authori