Williams v. City of New Haven
Williams v. City of New Haven
Opinion of the Court
**368In Genovese v. Gallo Wine Merchants, Inc. ,
The record reveals the following procedural history and facts that either were found by the review board, the Workers' Compensation Commissioner for the Third District (commissioner), or are not disputed. The plaintiff was employed by the city in its refuse division from 1993 until his employment was terminated on November 1, 2012. In January, 2011, the plaintiff injured his left shoulder, neck and back during the course of his employment. Patrick Ruwe, a physician, treated the plaintiff for his shoulder injury, and Shirvinda Wijesekera, also a physician, treated him for his neck and back injuries. On January 19, 2012, Ruwe released the plaintiff for light duty work for eight hours each day effective January 23, 2012.
Pursuant to the city's policy of returning injured employees to work as soon as medically reasonable, the city informed the plaintiff that he was assigned to light duty work at the city's fleet maintenance division. His hours were 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and his work consisted of transferring handwritten work orders to a computerized database. Upon returning to work, the plaintiff requested that his hours be changed to the hours that he had worked before his injury, 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., because the new schedule interfered with his second job. John Prokop, the city's director of public works, **370explained to the plaintiff that the city could not accommodate that request because the location of the plaintiff's light duty assignment did not open until 7 a.m., and the city did not want the plaintiff to work unsupervised.
Upon being informed of this, the plaintiff, later that same day, called Ruwe's office and spoke to his secretary. As a result of this conversation, Ruwe revised his work status report to restrict the plaintiff's hours to four to five hours of work per day. Shortly thereafter, Prokop called Ruwe's office and asked why the plaintiff's hours had been changed just days after he had returned to work. Ruwe then conducted a follow-up examination of the plaintiff and issued a work release form indicating that he had executed the previous form, which restricted the plaintiff's work to four *1161to five hours per day, in order to accommodate the plaintiff's desire to perform his second job and that Ruwe was now lifting that restriction.
The city subsequently filed with the commission a notice of intent to reduce or discontinue the plaintiff's workers' compensation benefits and initiated an investigation of the matter. During the course of the investigation, the plaintiff and Ruwe were deposed. Ruwe testified at his deposition that he had reduced the plaintiff's work hours to accommodate the plaintiff's desire to perform his second job and that there was no medical reason for the restriction. Thereafter, the commissioner granted the city's request to reduce the plaintiff's workers' compensation benefits for the period of January 19 through May 22, 2012.
After giving the plaintiff notice of its intent to do so, the city conducted a pretermination hearing to determine whether the plaintiff's employment should be terminated because he had committed workers' compensation fraud. The city subsequently notified the plaintiff that his employment was being terminated.
**371The plaintiff's union, the United Public Service Employees Union, Local 424, Unit 34 (union), then filed a grievance pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the union, claiming that the plaintiff had been fired without just cause. The parties agreed to bypass the grievance procedure and to proceed directly to arbitration before the state board, as authorized by the collective bargaining agreement. After conducting evidentiary hearings, the state board issued an award in favor of the city, concluding that it had just cause to terminate the plaintiff because his receipt of workers' compensation benefits was "the result of the [plaintiff's] intentional deceit" and his conduct "amounted to theft ...." The state board noted that, as defined in The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (2d Ed. 1987) p. 762, "fraud" means, among other things, "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage."
The plaintiff then filed an application to vacate the arbitration award pursuant to General Statutes § 52-418 (a) (4). The trial court observed that, because the submission to arbitration was unrestricted, the court's review was limited to determining whether "(1) the award fail[ed] to conform to the submission, or, in other words, [fell] outside the scope of the submission; or (2) the arbitrators manifestly disregarded the law." Harty v. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. ,
Meanwhile, the plaintiff filed a claim with the commission, alleging that he had been wrongfully discharged by the city in retaliation for bringing a workers'
**372compensation claim in violation of § 31-290a.
The city filed a motion to correct the commissioner's finding and award, arguing that the commission lacked **373jurisdiction to entertain the plaintiff's claim pursuant to § 31-290a"in light of the prior [state board] ruling that found [the] termination to be lawful and a prior Superior Court ruling that declined to vacate that arbitration panel ruling." The commissioner denied the motion. The city then filed a petition for review with the review board. The review board agreed with the commissioner that, under this court's interpretation of § 31-51bb in Genovese , the plaintiff's claim was not barred by principles of collateral estoppel. The review board also agreed with the commissioner that the issue that the plaintiff raised in his claim to the commission pursuant to § 31-290a was different from the issue raised in the arbitration proceeding pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. Accordingly, the review board affirmed the commissioner's decision.
This appeal followed.
We disagree with the city's first two claims and conclude that the review board correctly determined that § 31-51bb, as interpreted by this court in Genovese , permitted
Whether § 31-51bb permits the plaintiff to file a claim with the commission pursuant to § 31-290a alleging that the city had wrongfully terminated his employment in retaliation for bringing a workers' compensation claim, notwithstanding the fact that the state board previously had decided in a prior arbitration proceeding that the city had not wrongfully terminated the plaintiff's employment, is a question of statutory interpretation subject to plenary review. See, e.g., Perez-Dickson v. Bridgeport ,
*1164(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Lackman v. McAnulty ,
We begin our analysis with the language of § 31-51bb : "No employee shall be denied the right to pursue, in a court of competent jurisdiction, a cause of action arising under the state or federal Constitution or under a **376state statute solely because the employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Nothing in this section shall be construed to give an employee the right to pursue a cause of action in a court of competent jurisdiction for breach of any provision of a collective bargaining agreement or other claims dependent upon the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement."
As we have indicated, this is not the first time that this court has construed § 31-51bb. In Genovese v. Gallo Wine Merchants, Inc. , supra,
In the present case, the city does not dispute this holding in Genovese or ask us to overrule that case. Rather, the city claims that, although under § 31-51bb the doctrine of collateral estoppel does not bar an employee who has arbitrated a claim pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement from subsequently bringing a statutory claim raising the same issue in "a court of competent jurisdiction," § 31-51bb does not apply to subsequent claims filed in a forum other than the Superior Court. The plaintiff contends that, to the **378contrary, the legislature intended § 31-51bb to ensure that employees covered by collective bargaining agreements do not lose statutory rights available to other employees, and the forum in which the statutory cause of action is pursued has no bearing on whether the statute applies. Under the plaintiff's reading of the statute, the legislature intended the phrase "in a court of competent jurisdiction" simply to clarify that statutory and constitutional claims need not be brought pursuant to the procedures provided in a collective bargaining agreement, and it was not intended to limit the application of the statute to claims pursued in court. General Statutes § 31-51bb.
We acknowledge that the phrase "in a court of competent jurisdiction" occurs hundreds of times in the General Statutes. The plaintiff has not identified, and our research has not revealed, other statutes in which it would clearly appear, at least on the face of the statute, that the phrase includes tribunals other than courts.
We conclude that, when the phrase "in a court of competent jurisdiction" is considered *1166within the context of § 31-51bb, both parties' interpretations of the statute are plausible, and, therefore, the statute is ambiguous. First, § 31-51bb does not expressly provide that employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement can pursue a cause of action arising under the state or federal constitution or a state statute exclusively in the Superior Court. Second, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the legislature included the phrase "in a court of competent jurisdiction" in § 31-51bb solely because, in the absence of that phrase, the statute would be entirely unclear as to whether such a cause of action may be pursued in proceedings other than those provided for in a collective bargaining agreement, and the legislature was not concerned with specifying the forum in which the cause of action may be brought. Because § 31-51bb does not plainly and unambiguously manifest an intent to apply exclusively to claims pursued in the Superior Court, we may consider extratextual evidence of its meaning, including its legislative history.
As we observed in Genovese v. Gallo Wine Merchants, Inc. , supra,
Although Representative Radcliffe referred to "the courts of this state"; 31 H.R. Proc., supra, p. 4567; it is clear to us that the primary problem with which these speakers were concerned was ensuring that generally available statutory causes of action would be available to employees covered by collective bargaining **381agreements-not with specifying the forum in which such actions could be brought. In other words, these remarks support the conclusion that § 31-51bb was *1167intended to ensure that, when there is a generally available statutory or constitutional cause of action or remedy, such employees would have the same right to pursue that cause of action or to invoke that remedy as employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. See Conn. Joint Standing Committee Hearings, supra, p. 1450, remarks of Attorney Pulda (legislation "simply restores to union members the causes of action and remedies [for statutory violations] that the legislature originally provided"); id., p. 1454, remarks of William Rudis, director of political legislation for the Connecticut State Council Machinists ("union members are no different than any other members of society ... and ought not to be discriminated against"); id. ("it is essential that employees in collective bargaining areas be given the same kinds of consistent protections that we see ... folks everywhere in our society today are given"); id., p. 1528, written remarks of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union ("[t]his bill ... would afford employees covered by collective bargaining agreements the same rights as those who are not unionized, a remedy at law or equity for violations of civil or constitutional rights"). Indeed, Attorney Pulda expressly stated in her remarks that the legislation was intended to protect the right to "report employers' illegal conduct to the appropriate state agency [including] the right to file workers' compensation claims ...."
The city contends that, to the contrary, the problem that § 31-51bb was intended to address was "that arbitration may be a less effective forum for the final resolution of statutory claims" than proceedings in court because "[t]he [fact-finding] process in arbitration usually is not equivalent to judicial [fact-finding]. The record of the arbitration proceedings is not as complete; the usual rules of evidence do not apply; and rights and procedures common to civil trials, such as discovery, compulsory process, cross-examination, and testimony under oath, are often severely limited or unavailable." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Genovese v. Gallo Wine Merchants, Inc. , supra,
We acknowledge that the particular legislative concerns regarding that fact-finding process in arbitration that this court cited in Genovese are addressed only when an employee has brought a claim in a forum that applies the ordinary rules of evidence and procedure. As we have explained, however, the legislative history of § 31-51bb shows that the primary purpose of the legislation was not to ensure that the ordinary evidentiary and procedural rules would apply to statutory causes of action pursued by employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement but, rather, to ensure that such employees would have the same right as other employees to pursue a statutory cause of action. Thus, when, in a particular case, a statutory cause of action provides employees with the choice of litigating before an agency or in court, we can see no reason why the fact that the remedies that are available in court are more expansive should bar an employee who is subject to a collective bargaining agreement from pursuing the cause of action before the agency. Indeed, it would be inappropriate to focus on the specific procedures and remedies available in a proceeding before the commission pursuant to § 31-290a when considering **384the general question of whether § 31-51bb permits an employee who has obtained a decision from the state board pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement to subsequently pursue a statutory cause of action before an agency. We see no evidence that the legislature intended that this determination would be made on a case-by-case basis that depended on the evidentiary and procedural rules governing the statutory cause of action and the scope of the remedies that may be provided by the tribunal in which the action is pursued.
Moreover, although the ordinary rules of evidence and procedure do not apply in proceedings before the commission, it has expertise in the area of workers' compensation law that the state board does not have, thereby increasing the likelihood of a correct decision in a claim brought pursuant to § 31-290a. Indeed, because the commissioner and the review board have greater expertise in this area than the courts , it would be odd if § 31-51bb was intended to prevent the application of principles of collateral estoppel to workers' compensation claims brought in court but not before the commission. See Luce v. United Technologies Corp. ,
*1169In addition, the decisions of the review board are reviewable by the Appellate Court, pursuant to General Statutes § 31-301b, and by this court upon the granting of certification to appeal or the transfer of the appeal from the Appellate Court. See General Statutes § 51-199 (c). In such appeals, the reviewing court "must resolve statutory ambiguities or lacunae in a manner that will further the remedial purpose of the [Workers'
**385Compensation Act]." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Gill v. Brescome Barton, Inc. ,
For this reason, we also reject the city's claim that the provision of § 31-51bb permitting an employee to pursue a statutory cause of action in the Superior Court has been satisfied because the plaintiff filed an application to vacate the arbitrator's decision in the Superior Court pursuant to § 52-418 (a) (4). Again, the purpose of § 31-51bb was to give employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement the same right to bring a statutory cause of action as other employees. As we have just explained, because judicial review of an arbitration award is limited to determining whether the award conformed to the unrestricted submission and whether the arbitrator manifestly disregarded the law, the right to file, in the Superior Court, an application to vacate an arbitration award that resulted from proceedings provided for in a collective bargaining agreement is not equivalent to the right to file a claim with the commission pursuant to § 31-290a, which includes the right to subsequent judicial review under a more liberal standard.
The city also claims that the review board improperly determined that the doctrine of collateral estoppel did not bar the plaintiff from filing a claim pursuant to § 31-290a with the commission because it found that the issue raised in the arbitration proceedings before the state board was different from the issue raised in the **386claim pursuant to § 31-290a. This court concluded in Genovese v. Gallo Wine Merchants, Inc. , supra,
The decision of the Compensation Review Board is affirmed.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.
Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency, a nonprofit association that provides workers' compensation insurance coverage to the city, is also a defendant in this matter. In the interest of clarity, and because the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency has not raised any separate claims on appeal, we refer in this opinion to the city as the defendant.
General Statutes § 31-290a (a) provides: "No employer who is subject to the provisions of this chapter shall discharge, or cause to be discharged, or in any manner discriminate against any employee because the employee has filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits or otherwise exercised the rights afforded to him pursuant to the provisions of this chapter."
General Statutes § 31-51bb provides: "No employee shall be denied the right to pursue, in a court of competent jurisdiction, a cause of action arising under the state or federal Constitution or under a state statute solely because the employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Nothing in this section shall be construed to give an employee the right to pursue a cause of action in a court of competent jurisdiction for breach of any provision of a collective bargaining agreement or other claims dependent upon the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement."
The city appealed to the Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199 (c) and Practice Book § 65-1.
Pursuant to § 31-290a (b), an employee who is subject to alleged discrimination because he or she filed a workers' compensation claim may elect either to bring a civil action in the Superior Court or file a complaint with the chairman of the commission.
We recognize that § 31-51bb does not expressly state that an employee is authorized or is permitted to bring a statutory cause of action even though the claim raised in that action was previously decided by a grievance brought pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement. Rather, the statute provides that "[n ]o employee shall be denied the right to pursue" a statutory cause of action under these circumstances. (Emphasis added.) General Statutes § 31-51bb. In the interest of simplicity, however, we use the word permit in this opinion to indicate that, under § 31-51bb, an employee will not be denied the right to pursue a statutory cause of action by principles of collateral estoppel merely because that issue was previously decided in proceedings pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.
The plaintiff employee in Kolenberg also raised a claim pursuant to the Teacher Tenure Act, General Statutes (Rev. to 1987) § 10-151. See Kolenberg v. Board of Education , supra,
In some cases, it simply is not clear one way or the other whether "a court of competent jurisdiction" includes tribunals other than the Superior Court, and we are reluctant to hazard a determination as to the scope and meaning of that phrase in a vacuum. See, e.g., General Statutes § 3-62g ("[i]f, after payment or delivery to the Treasurer, any officer ... of the federal government is compelled by a court of competent jurisdiction to make a second payment, the Treasurer ... shall refund the amount of such second payment"); General Statutes § 4-61oo (d) ("[n]othing in this subsection or subsection [c] of this section shall be construed to give a hiree or an applicant the right to pursue a cause of action in a court of competent jurisdiction for the violation of any provision of this subsection or subsection [c] of this section"); General Statutes § 4a-101 (e) ("[n]o person ... shall be held liable ... unless such person, agency, employee or official is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to have acted in a wilful, wanton or reckless manner").
In this regard, we note that complaints of discriminatory employment practices may be filed with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities pursuant to General Statutes § 46a-82. Inasmuch as the legislative history indicates that the statutory right to be free from discrimination is one of the rights that § 31-51bb was intended to protect, it would be anomalous to conclude that the statute does not permit the filing of such claims with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities if such a claim was previously decided in proceedings pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.
Reference
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- Simon WILLIAMS v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN
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