Advance Release Opinions – Supreme Court – June 1, 8, 22 and 29

Reviews of Connecticut Supreme Court advance release opinions about civil procedure, election law, and worker’s compensation.

Civil Procedure

Samelko v. Kingstone Insurance Company – Kingstone is a New York insurance company that issued a business car insurance policy in New York covering a business located in New York and a vehicle garaged in New York. The coverage territory was the United States. Insured driver collided with the Samelkos in Connecticut. The Samelkos sued the insured. Kingstone declined to defend. Default judgment entered in the Samelkos’ favor, which Kingstone declined to pay. The Samelkos then exercised their subrogation rights and sued Kingstone. Trial court dismissed the action for lack of personal jurisdiction, finding that Kingstone had no contacts with Connecticut and thus no notice that it might be sued in Connecticut. Supreme Court reversed, finding that because the policy had a nationwide coverage territory (1) the contract was “to be performed” in Connecticut under our corporate long arm statute; (2) it was foreseeable that Kingstone would have to perform in Connecticut, which provided the necessary minimum contacts with Connecticut; and (3) it was fair and reasonable to require Kingstone to defend itself in Connecticut.

Election Law

Arciniega v. Feliciano – Reversed. Candidate 1 lacked standing to attack validity of petition that led to Candidate 2’s inclusion on the ballot in a primary election because Candidate 1 was not aggrieved “by the ruling of an election official” as the statute required. Specifically, though Candidate 2’s address was wrong on the petition, there was no statute requiring an election official to reject a petition containing an inaccurate address. Since there was no rejection requirement, there was no “ruling” in accepting the petition with the inaccurate address. Since there had to be a ruling before there could be standing to complain about the ruling, there was no standing.

Cook-Littman v. Board of Selectman – Reversed. Town’s charter, not state statute, set procedure for filling a vacancy on the board of selectman because it is a matter of purely local concern.

Worker’s Compensation

Williams v. New Haven – Worker received benefits, returned to work, but was ultimately terminated for worker’s compensation fraud. Worker filed a grievance, which the parties arbitrated under the collective bargaining agreement. Worker lost both the arbitration and the motion in Superior Court to vacate the arbitration award. Meanwhile, worker filed a statutory wrongful discharge claim under CGS § 31-290a with the worker’s compensation commission. City moved to dismiss, arguing that since worker was pursuing a statutory wrongful termination claim before the worker’s compensation commission instead of a “court of competent jurisdiction” as required by CGS § 31-51bb and Genovese, the arbitration collaterally estopped the wrongful termination claim. Commissioner denied the motion. Review board affirmed. Supreme Court also affirmed, finding that (1) “court of competent jurisdiction” includes worker’s compensation commission for purposes of § 31-51bb and Genovese; (2) Superior Court motion to vacate the arbitration award did not satisfy § 31-51bb’s requirement of judicial review of statutory claim; and (3) § 31-51bb and Genovese allow the worker to pursue the same or a substantially similar claim after the adverse arbitration decision.