State v. Avoletta

Citations

• 347 Conn. 629

Syllabus

In 2007, the defendants, a parent and her two children, filed notice of a claim with the Claims Commissioner, seeking reimbursement from the 630 AUGUST, 2023 347 Conn. 629 State v. Avoletta plaintiff, the state of Connecticut, for tuition and costs that they incurred as a result of the enrollment of the children in private school due to allegedly unsafe and unsanitary conditions in certain of the Torrington public school buildings, where the children had been students. The commissioner dismissed the claim as untimely because it was not filed within the one year statute of limitations (§ 4-148 (a)) applicable to claims against the state. The defendants sought legislative review of the commissioner's ruling pursuant to § 4-148 (b), and the General Assembly passed a joint resolution in which it vacated that ruling and authorizing the defendants to file an action for damages against the state in the Superior Court. The defendants commenced such an action in 2012, but the court dismissed it, finding that the claim was untimely and that the joint resolution was an unconstitutional public emolument that violated article first, § 1, of the Connecticut constitution insofar as it granted the defendants a right that was unavailable to other individuals and failed to identify any public purpose. In 2013, the defendants filed a second claim with the commissioner, alleging, inter alia, that they were harmed by the General Assembly's failure to articulate a public purpose in the joint resolution and seeking to revive their 2007 claim. The commis- sioner dismissed the defendants' second claim, as well. The defendants subsequently returned to the General Assembly, which ultimately passed No. 17-4, § 1, of the 2017 Special Acts (S.A. 17-4). Special Act 17-4 authorized the defendants to file a late claim for injuries ''alleged to have accrued on September 15, 2006,'' and expressly recognized that ''a public purpose [was] served by encouraging accountable state govern- ment through the