214 Conn. 609 | Conn. | 1990
In order to finance the expenses of the department of public utility control and the office of consumer counsel, General Statutes § 16-49 (b)
The following facts underlie the defendant’s administrative ruling. The plaintiff, as a community antenna television company within the meaning of General Statutes § 16-1 (14),
In its challenge to the assessments under § 16-49 (b), the plaintiff claimed that inclusion of the gross revenues of Home Theater made its assessments excessive, erroneous and unlawful. It asked the defendant to find that Home Theater is an independent entity, separate and distinct from the plaintiff, and that it is not a “public service company” under § 16-1 (4). The plaintiff further requested the defendant, as the agency responsible for the administration of § 16-49 (b), to rule that the plaintiff’s relationship with Home Theater did not warrant assessing these two corporations as a single entity, despite the fact that the relationship was also an issue in the as yet unresolved tax appeal. At no time was Home Theater notified of, represented in, or made a party to, these proceedings. Subsequent to the hearing concerning the validity of the plaintiff’s assessment,
In its decision, the defendant declined to rule on the merits of the plaintiffs claims. First, the defendant declared that it would not rule “at this time” on the proper definition of “gross revenues” because the department of revenue services “is the primary agency responsible for the assessment and collection of the tax on the gross revenues of a CATV system . . . [and] has not yet issued a ruling on the tax appeal filed by [the plaintiff].” Second, the defendant held that Home Theater was a necessary party in whose absence the defendant was “incapable of addressing the rulings sought [by the plaintiff.” The defendant’denominated these conclusions as its “decision” in Docket No. 87-09-21 and terminated the proceedings without retaining jurisdiction or ordering any form of remand.
The plaintiff filed a timely administrative appeal from this decision. It maintained that it was entitled to a ruling on the merits from the defendant and that Home Theater was not a necessary party to such a ruling. The trial court, however, dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction after concluding that the decision rendered by the defendant was not a final decision. The plaintiff has appealed the dismissal of its administrative appeal.
The question of whether an administrative decision is a final judgment has never been an easy one to resolve. Most of our cases have arisen in the context of administrative rulings that, while resolving some issues, have left other matters as yet undetermined. In these cases, the dispositive question is whether the interlocutory order “so concludes the rights of the parties that further proceedings cannot affect them.” State v. Curcio, 191 Conn. 27, 31, 463 A.2d 566 (1983);
This case is different because the defendant has reached an administrative decision, without retaining jurisdiction for further administrative proceedings, that puts the plaintiff “out of court” without any substantive disposition of any aspect of the merits of its challenge to the § 16-49 (b) assessments. Although the plaintiff presumably may reinitiate an administrative proceeding at some time in the future when its disagreement with the department of revenue services is resolved, it may continue to be confronted with the defendant’s conclusion that Home Theater is a necessary party.
Our conclusion that the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction to hear the plaintiff’s appeal requires
There is error, the judgment is set aside and the case is remanded for farther proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.
General Statutes § 16-49 (b) currently provides in relevant part: “For each fiscal year, each public service company . . . shall pay the department of public utility control its share of all expenses of the department and the office of consumer counsel for the same fiscal year. On or before
The statute was amended several times during the years for which the plaintiff challenges its assessments, but none of the amendments is relevant to the issue in this appeal.
The office of consumer counsel was permitted to intervene as a party defendant at the administrative level and was a codefendant at trial as well as at this appeal. For the sake of convenience we will nonetheless refer to the department of public utility control as the defendant, since it rendered the decision that is at issue in this case.
General Statutes § 16-1 (4) defines a “public service company” as including “community antenna television companies.” General Statutes § 16-1 (14) defines “community antenna television companies]” as including “every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership or
A dismissal for failure to join a necessary party is an appealable final judgment. Biro v. Hill, 214 Conn. 1, 2, 570 A.2d 182 (1990).