Stanley v. Barone

Citations

• 210 Conn. App. 239

Syllabus

The incarcerated plaintiff, who owed portions of filing fees for several cases he had initiated in federal court, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his complaint against the defendants, employees of the Department of Correction, in which he alleged that they had improperly removed funds from his inmate account to pay the federal filing fees. The plaintiff's complaint alleged that the defendants were permitted to withdraw, in monthly installments, only 20 percent of the relevant balance of his inmate account for filing fees for a single federal case, not 20 percent of that balance for outstanding filing fees for each federal action he filed. The plaintiff claimed that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Bruce v. Samuels (577 U.S. 82), which held that the governing federal statute (28 U.S.C. § 1915 (b) (2)) requires the simultaneous recoupment of multiple filing fees from prison- ers with at least $10 in their accounts, did not apply to him, as he had filed his federal actions before that case was decided. The defendants claimed that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the action because each defendant was entitled to statutory (§ 4-165 (a)) immunity and, with respect to any federal claims the plaintiff alleged, qualified immunity. Held that the trial court properly granted the defen- dants' motion to dismiss, that court having properly determined that the defendants were entitled to both statutory and qualified immunity: the plaintiff's allegations established that the defendants were acting within the scope of their employment and in accordance with federal law when they withdrew funds from his account, and, even if the plaintiff were correct that the holding in Bruce did not apply to him, he did not allege that the defendants' conduct was wanton, reckless or malicious; moreover, the plaintiff failed to allege facts establishing that the defen- dants violated his clearly established constitution