Peters v. Senman

Citations

• 193 Conn. App. 766

Syllabus

The plaintiff brought this action seeking joint custody of the parties' minor child. After the trial court rendered judgment granting joint legal custody to the parties and primary physical custody to the defendant, the plaintiff filed a motion for modification of custody. During the pendency of the custody modification proceedings, the plaintiff also filed two motions seeking a declaratory judgment that certain fundamental rights guaran- teed by the federal and state constitutions deprived the court of the authority to adjudicate parental custody conflicts under the best inter- ests of the child standard. Thereafter, the court rendered judgment denying in part the plaintiff's motion for modification of custody, dis- missing her motions for a declaratory judgment and awarding attorney's fees to the defendant. On the plaintiff's appeal to this court, held: 1. The plaintiff's claim that the court violated her fourteenth amendment rights by terminating a portion of certain rights provided to her under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (act) (20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.) without conducting a fitness hearing was not reviewable, the plaintiff having failed to brief the claim adequately; moreover, even if the issue of federal preemption had been adequately briefed, it would not have any applicability to the precise claim as framed by the plaintiff, as the plaintiff stated in her brief that she was not appealing from the trial court's decision declining to modify the existing order that she has no authority to change the location of the child's schooling, which was the sole basis for her claim under the act. 2. The trial court did not err in dismissing the plaintiff's motions for a declaratory judgment that the court had no authority under the federal and state constitutions to intervene in her long-standing custody disputes with her child's father; the plaintiff's constitutional claims were mer- itless, as she fundamentally misunderstood when declaratory relief