68 Conn. App. 488 | Conn. App. Ct. | 2002
Opinion
In these actions, the plaintiffs, the chief of police and the police department of the town of Windham, appeal from the trial court’s judgments dismissing their three consolidated administrative appeals from three virtually identical final decisions of the defendant freedom of information commission (commission). The commission’s final decisions resulted from complaints filed pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (act), General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 1-7 et seq., now § 1-200 et seq., by the remaining defendants, Trenton Wright, Jr., Mark Reynolds, the Norwich Bulletin, Paul Lewis and Fox 61 News.
The requesting defendants filed complaints with the commission alleging that the plaintiffs had violated the act by failing to grant timely access to the registry. On December 22, 1998, the commission issued notices of final decisions on the complaints. The commission con-
On February 4,1999, the plaintiffs filed administrative appeals with the court, challenging the commission’s final decisions. On May 27, 1999, the court, Sferrazza, J., declined to dismiss the appeals as moot and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. Judge Sferrazza reasoned that although the enactment of Public Acts 1998, No. 98-111, § 9, codified at General Statutes (Rev. to 1999) § 54-258,
I
The plaintiffs first make two separate but essentially redundant claims that the court misconstrued § 54-102r and, therefore, misapplied § 1-19 (b) (3). Because no practical relief may be granted, we decline to address those issues and dismiss the appeals as moot.
Our standard of review regarding mootness is well settled. “Mootness implicates [this] court’s subject matter jurisdiction and is thus a threshold matter for us to
Courts, however, have developed an exception to the mootness rule for recurring questions that would otherwise completely evade review. “[F]or an otherwise moot question to qualify for review under the capable of repetition, yet evading review exception, it must meet three requirements. First, the challenged action, or the effect of the challenged action, by its very nature must be of a limited duration so that there is a strong likelihood that the substantial majority of cases raising a question about its validity will become moot before appellate litigation can be concluded. Second, there must be a reasonable likelihood that the question presented in the pending case will arise again in the future, and that it will affect either the same complaining party or a reasonably identifiable group for whom that party can be said to act as surrogate. Third, the question must have some public importance. ” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Board of Education v. State Board of Education, 243 Conn. 772, 777-78, 709 A.2d 510 (1998).
The plaintiffs argue that the court misconstrued the law applicable at the time of the underlying events.
While a decision as to the plaintiffs’ consolidated appeals was pending, the Second Circuit upheld a permanent injunction against the full application of Megan’s Law.
The Second Circuit’s decision to uphold the injunction renders the plaintiffs’ claims moot because no practical relief may be granted to the plaintiffs even if we were to use the injunction as a basis for reversing the decisions of the court and the commission. Although we recognize the importance of the Second Circuit’s decision in Doe, a determination of whether the court, and thereby the commission, incorrectly applied the law in these instances
II
Nonetheless, the plaintiffs claim that review is required because the commission’s prospective orders prevent their appeals from being moot, and this court may offer practical relief by reversing the judgments of the trial court and clearing their names in the event of future violations of the act. See generally Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven, Inc. v. Freedom of Information Commission, 240 Conn. 1, 9, 688 A.2d 314 (1997) (Appellate Court judgment of mootness reversed because prospective order remained in controversy), on remand, 47 Conn. App. 466, 704 A.2d 827 (1998). Our Supreme Court has recognized, however, that a controversy involving prospective orders can become moot by “a change in circumstances subsequent to the [commission’s] decision . . . .” Id., 9 n.10. Therefore, the present case is unlike the situation in Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven, Inc., because here the prospective orders, in relation to the operation of Megan’s Law in conjunction with the provisions of the act, were rendered inert by the subsequent permanent injunction that was upheld by the Second Circuit. Moreover, it is not within our province to intercede on behalf of the plaintiffs merely because prospective orders could result in harsher consequences from future controversies, especially when, with respect to the interaction between Megan’s Law and the act, the
Furthermore, this is not a situation in which the “potential for harm to the [plaintiffs] if we spurn [their] appeal[s] is of sufficient magnitude to overcome any claim of mootness.” State v. Reilly, 60 Conn. App. 716, 725, 760 A.2d 1001 (2000). In light of the commission’s recognition of the plaintiffs’ good faith and the pressure under which they acted, it does not appear to this court that the commission’s final decisions or its prospective orders will promulgate prejudice against the plaintiffs, as they have contemplated. Thus, even if this court, arguendo, overruled the trial court and, thereby, the commission, the effect on the plaintiffs of these events is unchanged, as their reputations apparently have been unstained by these proceedings.
Ill
The plaintiffs’ final claim is that disclosure of the registry may have impaired the division of criminal justice in resolving the underlying homicide. This court need not address that issue because the division of criminal justice is not a party to these appeals, and the plaintiffs do not have standing to raise issues regarding harm to others. See Russell v. Yale University, 54 Conn. App. 573, 576-77, 737 A.2d 941 (1999). Therefore, after reviewing the record on appeal, evaluating the briefs and arguments of the parties, and accounting for the
The appeals are dismissed as moot.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
After a young girl was found dead in August, 1998, the defendants Wright, Reynolds, the Norwich Bulletin, Lewis and Fox 61 News requested that the plaintiffs allow them access to the state’s sexual offenders registry. Following the plaintiffs’ refusal to do so, those defendants filed complaints with the commission. Wright is the father of two children similar in age to the victim of the alleged homicide. The children resided in the immediate area of the alleged crime. Except for Wright and the commission, the other defendants are media outlets or members of the media.
General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 54-102r concerned the registration of sexual offenders and was popularly known as Megan’s Law. That statute, as amended by No. 97-183 of the 1997 Public Acts, was repealed and replaced by law enacted under No. 98-111 of the 1998 Public Acts, which was codified as the new Megan’s Law under General Statutes § 54-250 et seq. and has been effective since October 1, 1998. Slight modifications to the law were made under No. 99-183 of the 1999 Public Acts, which became effective July 1, 1999.
It is apparent that the plaintiffs, although referencing General Statutes § 1-210 (b) (4) of the act in their statement of issues and the first heading of their argument, actually are referring to General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 1-19 (b) (3), now § 1-210 (b) (3). Section 1-19 (b) (3) provides in relevant part that disclosure is not required of “records of law enforcement agencies not otherwise available to the public which records were compiled in connection with the detection or investigation of crime, if the disclosure of said records would not be in the public interest because it would result in the disclosure of [sensitive information] . . . .”
We note at the outset that although the parties have neither raised nor briefed the issue of mootness, we have raised it sua sponte because mootness implicates this court’s subject matter jurisdiction and must be addressed. See Lucarelli v. Freedom of Information Commission, 29 Conn. App. 547, 548 n.2, 616 A.2d 816 (1992), cert. denied, 225 Conn. 901, 621 A.2d 284 (1993). We further note that we are aware of our Supreme Court’s holding in Lynch v. Granby Holdings, Inc., 230 Conn. 95, 98-99, 644 A.2d 325 (1994), which reversed this court’s judgment that a new trial was required due to plain error committed by the trial court in a case involving the propriety of a jury’s verdict. Noting that this court could consider only the infirmity of the
The plaintiffs claimed that the registry was exempt from the disclosure requirements of the act pursuant to General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 1-19 (b) (3), now § 1-210 (b) (3). See footnote 3.
Public Acts 1998, No. 98-111, § 9, codified at General Statutes (Rev. to 1999) § 54-258, provides in relevant part: “(a) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes, the registry maintained by the Department of Public Safety shall be a public record and shall be accessible to the public during normal business hours. The Department of Public Safety shall make registry information available to the public through the Internet. Not less than once per calendar quarter, the Department of Public Safety shall issue notices to all print and electronic media in the state regarding the availability and means of accessing the registry. Each local police department and each state police troop shall keep a record of all registration information transmitted to it by the Department of Public Safety, and shall make such information accessible to the public during normal business hours. . . .”
General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 1-201, now § 1-19c, provides in relevant part that “the Division of Criminal Justice shall not be deemed to be a public agency except in respect to its administrative functions.”
The plaintiffs’ assertion that the commission ignored their exemption defense is without merit because the commission clearly found that General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 1-19 (b) (3), now § 1-210 (b) (3), did not apply.
See generally Doe v. Dept. of Public Safety, 271 F.3d 38 (2d Cir. 2001). In Doe, a person listed on the registry as a sex offender challenged the constitutionality of Connecticut’s Megan’s Law on procedural due process grounds under the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution and sought a permanent injunction on the dissemination of the registry to the public. The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut had granted summary judgment to the plaintiff and ordered the injunction. Id., 46. In upholding the injunction, the Second Circuit concluded that Connecticut’s Megan’s Law registry implied, as published to the public on the Internet and in printed form, that each person listed on the registry was more likely than the average person to be currently dangerous. Id., 41-42. The court ultimately concluded that publication of the registry to the public violates the due process rights of each listed person until a hearing or other procedurally adequate opportunity is afforded to those persons to address the veracity of the registry’s implication. Id., 62. The court noted that to comply with the upheld injunction and renew publication to the public, “Connecticut will likely adopt new procedures more sensitive to whether those on a widely disseminated registry are likely to be currently dangerous.” Id., 61.
In Connecticut state courts, great weight is afforded to the decisions of the Second Circuit as to matters involving the federal constitution. State v. Faria, 254 Conn. 613, 625 n.12, 758 A.2d 348 (2000).
See Presnick v. Freedom of Information Commission, 53 Conn. App. 162, 164, 729 A.2d 236 (1999) (standard of appellate review for trial court review of commission decisions).
In point of fact, the permanent injunction that was upheld by the Second Circuit prevents the plaintiffs from running afoul of the act in regard to the registry because now it cannot be released to the public. It will be soon enough to deal with actual controversies when and if publication of the registry to the public is reinstated, instead of assuming that controversies do or will exist where there can be none under the current law.