Schoenhorn v. Moss

Citations

• 347 Conn. 501

Syllabus

The plaintiff attorney sought a writ of mandamus to compel the defendant, the chief court reporter for the judicial district of Stamford-Norwalk, to produce certain transcripts that were sealed by another court in a marital dissolution action involving different parties. In the dissolution action, the family court had held a hearing concerning child custody, during which it issued an oral order closing the courtroom to the public and sealing the hearing transcripts. Following the dismissal of the disso- lution action, the defendant declined to provide the transcripts of the custody hearing to the plaintiff, and the plaintiff commenced the present 502 AUGUST, 2023 347 Conn. 501 Schoenhorn v. Moss mandamus action against the defendant individually and in her official capacity as chief court reporter, seeking an injunction compelling the defendant, pursuant to statute (§ 51-61 (c)), to produce those transcripts. The trial court granted the defendant's motion to dismiss and rendered judgment dismissing the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Relying on Valvo v. Freedom of Information Commission (294 Conn. 534), in which this court concluded that a trial court presiding over an administrative appeal did not have subject matter jurisdiction to overturn sealing orders issued by another court in an unrelated case involving different parties, the trial court in the present case concluded that the plaintiff's mandamus action constituted an impermissible collateral attack on the family court's sealing order, and, therefore, the action was nonjusticiable because no practical relief was available to the plaintiff. On appeal from the trial court's judgment of dismissal, the plaintiff claimed that the trial court incorrectly had determined that his action was nonjusticiable. Held that the trial court properly dismissed the plaintiff's mandamus action on the ground that it was nonjusticiable, as the trial court could not afford the plaintiff any practical relief: The pl