Nandabalan v. Commissioner of Motor Vehicles

Citations

• 204 Conn. App. 457

Syllabus

The plaintiff, who had been charged with the crime of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, appealed to the trial court from the decision of the defendant Commissioner of Motor Vehicles suspending his motor vehicle operator's license for forty-five days and requiring the use of an ignition interlock device in his motor vehicle for one year, pursuant to statute (§ 14-227b), for his refusal to submit to a breath test to determine his blood alcohol content. The trial court rendered judgment dismissing the plaintiff's appeal, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court. Held that the judgment of the trial court dismissing the plaintiff's appeal was affirmed; the trial court did not err in concluding that the administrative record contained substantial evidence to support the hearing officer's finding that the plaintiff know- ingly refused to submit to the breath test; the totality of the evidence, including a police report, a Form A-44, a breath test strip that read ''test aborted refusal,'' and the testimony of the arresting officer and the plaintiff at the hearing, provided reliable, probative, and substantial evidence that the plaintiff refused to submit to a breath test; moreover, although the officer did not provide a narrative to describe the plaintiff's words or actions that constituted a refusal, as required by Form A-44, the officer's testimony at the hearing about the plaintiff's express verbal refusal cured any defects in the Form A-44. Argued January 11—officially released May 4, 2021