State Marshal Assn. of Connecticut, Inc. v. Johnson

Citations

• 198 Conn. App. 392

Syllabus

The plaintiff, a voluntary association of deputized state marshals, sought a declaratory judgment that the actions of the defendant J, the tax collector of the town of Canton, in executing a contract with a law firm, P Co., violated certain provisions of the General Statutes (§§ 12-135 (a), 12- 155, 12-157, and 12-162). J and P Co. entered into a contract stating that P Co. would assist J with the collection of delinquent tax, utility, and similar accounts. The plaintiff alleged that the legislature has outlined only certain classes of persons who were authorized to collect taxes due to a town, and that J lacked statutory authority to delegate or transfer the power to collect municipal taxes to a third party that did not fall within one of those classes. P Co. intervened as a defendant, and then filed a motion to dismiss, which J joined, claiming that the plaintiff lacked standing to maintain the declaratory action. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss and rendered judgment dismissing the action, and the plaintiff appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court properly concluded that the plaintiff lacked standing to maintain the declaratory action, as the plaintiff did not establish that its members were classically aggrieved by the challenged conduct: nei- ther the plaintiff's pleadings, nor an affidavit submitted in opposition to the motion to dismiss, provided any basis to conclude that any member of the plaintiff possessed a specific, personal and legal interest with respect to those allegations not shared by the community as a whole, and the plaintiff failed to establish an interest in J's conduct pursuant to §§ 12-155 and 12-157 that was distinguishable from that of the general public; moreover, the plaintiff did not allege specific facts detailing how any of its members were directly injured, nothing in the record indicated that any member of the plaintiff association had ever engaged in the collection of the town's taxes pursuant to §§ 12-135 and