Devine v. Fusaro

Citations

• 197 Conn. App. 872

Syllabus

The plaintiff administrator of the estate of the decedent, D, sought to recover damages from the defendants, four members of the tactical unit of the State Police, for the wrongful death of D following his suicide after a standoff with law enforcement on certain public property in Groton. The plaintiff's complaint alleged that, in response to a Groton police captain's request for the assistance of the tactical unit, the defendants arrived at the scene of the standoff, and, after several hours of unsuccess- ful negotiations with D, who was suicidal and armed with a handgun, they used less than lethal ammunition on him. D then shot himself in the head and died as a result of the gunshot. The trial court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss on the ground that the action was barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. In reaching its decision, the court determined that the wrongful death action, as alleged in the complaint, satisfied the four criteria of the test set forth in Spring v. Constantino (168 Conn. 563), and, therefore, it was brought against the defendants in their official, rather than individual, capacities. On the plaintiff's appeal to this court, held that the trial court properly granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiff's action on the ground of sovereign immunity: contrary to the plaintiff's contention, the four criteria of the Spring test were satisfied, and, therefore, the defendants were sued in their official, rather than their individual, capacities, as the defendants were state officials, the action against them concerned a matter in which they were representing the state and acting in the scope of their official police duties, the state was the real party in interest because the damages sought by the plaintiff were premised entirely on injuries alleged to have been caused by the official acts of the defendants, and a judgment against the defendants would impact how the State Police, and especially members of the tactical uni