Pickard v. Dept. of Mental Health & Addiction Services

Citations

• 210 Conn. App. 788

Syllabus

The plaintiff, whose employment with the defendant had been terminated, appealed to this court from the trial court's judgment dismissing her application to vacate an arbitration award following the cancellation of an arbitration of a grievance relating to her termination. The Office of Labor Relations had denied a grievance by the plaintiff's union seeking her reinstatement. The plaintiff thereafter waived her right to union representation and sought independent counsel to represent her during the arbitration of that grievance. The plaintiff failed to deposit the required funds for her share of the arbitration costs in escrow, and the office cancelled the arbitration. The plaintiff filed an application to vacate an arbitration award pursuant to statute (§ 52-418 or § 52-420), and requested that the court issue a pendente lite order pursuant to statute (§ 52-422) to, inter alia, open the arbitration proceedings. The court granted the defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. On the plaintiff's appeal to this court, held that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the plaintiff's application to vacate an arbitration award and, thus, properly dismissed it: no arbitration award was issued, thus, an essential condition of §§ 52- 418 and 52-420 was not met; moreover, because no arbitration was pending, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider the plaintiff's petition for an order pendente lite. Submitted on briefs December 2, 2021—officially released February 22, 2022