State v. Guild

Citations

• 214 Conn. App. 121

Syllabus

The defendant acquittee, who previously had been found not guilty of certain crimes by reason of mental disease or defect, appealed to this court from the trial court's denial of his motion to dismiss the state's petition, filed pursuant to statute (§ 17a-593), to extend his commitment to the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board. On appeal, the acquittee claimed that this court had subject matter jurisdiction over his appeal because the trial court's order denying his motion satisfied at least one prong of the finality test set forth in State v. Curcio (191 Conn. 27). Held that the trial court's order denying the acquittee's motion to dismiss the state's petition did not satisfy either prong of Curcio and was not a final judgment for purposes of appeal: the order did not terminate a separate and distinct proceeding for purposes of the first prong of Curcio as the order involved a constitutional challenge that was inextricably intertwined with the adjudication of the petition and, as a result, the proceedings concerning that order were not wholly severable from the merits of the state's petition; moreover, the order did not result in the irreparable loss of a claimed right if immediate appellate review was not afforded, required to satisfy the second prong of Curcio, as the petition remained pending before the trial court, the acquittee's claimed right to discharge from the board's jurisdiction on the basis of his right to equal protection pursuant to the United States constitution was still intact and further proceedings could still affect the acquittee's claimed right; accordingly, this court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the appeal. Argued December 7, 2021—officially released July 26, 2022