29 Conn. App. 547 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1992
The pro se plaintiff appeals from a decision of the Superior Court dismissing his appeal of a decision issued by the freedom of information commission. The commission had previously dismissed the
The trial court relied upon the following facts and procedural history in rendering its decision. In March and April of 1990, the plaintiff requested by letter any and all information regarding him in the possession of Assistant Attorney General Paul Shapiro and the other defendants. The plaintiff claimed to be indigent, and asked that, the documents be provided free of charge. See General Statutes § 1-15. Shapiro responded that the plaintiff’s statement of indigence was not sufficient, and that he could not waive the statutory fee for reproducing the documents. The plaintiff appealed to the commission in April, 1990, alleging the denial of his request for records. The complaint was docketed as FIC 90-148. A hearing was scheduled on the matter before Commissioner Gloria Schaffer on August 2,
Meanwhile, Shapiro delivered the documents, 825 pages of them, to the commission as agreed, waiving the normal fífty-cent per page fee. The plaintiff claimed that some of the materials were missing. After corresponding with Shapiro and pursuant to the agreement reached at the commission hearing, the plaintiff filed nine new complaints with the commission, docketed as FIC 90-390 through FIC 90-398, seeking the allegedly missing documents.
On September 25,1991, the commission notified the plaintiff of its final decision to dismiss his second set of complaints, FIC 90-390 through FIC 90-398. The trial court dismissed the appeal of the original commission complaint again on October 22, giving rise to this appeal. Nine days later, the plaintiff commenced a new administrative appeal of the commission’s dismissal of FIC 90-390 through FIC 90-398.
There is no practical relief we can grant in this appeal since the injury the plaintiff complained of in FIC 90-148 and the redress sought have been resolved in the plaintiff’s favor. The plaintiff sought copies of all documents concerning him from Shapiro, the six University of Connecticut employees, and two university offices to which the plaintiff was entitled access.
Our Supreme Court said in Connecticut Foundry Co. v. International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union, 177 Conn. 17, 19, 411 A.2d 1 (1979): “ ‘It is a well-settled general rule that the existence of an actual controversy is an essential requisite to appellate jurisdiction; it is not the province of appellate courts to decide moot questions, disconnected from the granting of actual relief or from the determination of which no practical relief can follow.’ Reynolds v. Vroom, 130 Conn. 512, 515, 36 A.2d 22 [1944]; Phaneuf v. Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, 166 Conn. 449, 452, 352 A.2d 291 [1974]; Harkins v. Driscoll, 165 Conn. 407, 409, 334 A.2d 901 [1973]; Roy v. Mulcahy, 161 Conn. 324, 328, 288 A.2d 64 [1971]; Maltbie, Conn. App. Proc. § 21. In the absence of an actual and existing controversy for us to adjudicate in any sense of the term, the courts of this state may not be used as a vehicle to obtain judicial opinions upon points of law; Reply of the Judges, 33 Conn. 586 [1867]; and where the question presented is purely academic, we must refuse to entertain the appeal. Young v. Tynan, 148 Conn. 456, 459, 172 A.2d 190 [1961].”
The plaintiff maintains that he has not obtained all of the documents he requested. Pursuant to the agreement he reached with the commission, the plaintiff
The appeal is dismissed as moot.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Those parties are Charles Oliver, Andrew Canzonetti, Milton R. Stem, Giovanni Sinicropi, Robert Dombroski, Jose Luis Coy, office of the president, University of Connecticut, and office of the vice president for academic affairs, University of Connecticut. The individuals are present and former employees of the University of Connecticut. These parties, as well as Assistant Attorney General Paul M. Shapiro, are named as additional defendants in this appeal.
Although neither party has raised the issues of standing and mootness, we do so sua sponte because those concepts implicate this court’s subject matter jurisdiction and therefore must be addressed. See Daly v. DelPonte, 27 Conn. App. 495, 608 A.2d 93, cert. denied, 223 Conn. 903, 610 A.2d 177 (1992); Planning & Zoning Commission v. Goal, 9 Conn. App. 538, 520 A.2d 246, cert. denied, 203 Conn. 803, 522 A.2d 294 (1987).
The following exchange occurred at the August 2, 1990 hearing:
“[Hearing officer Gloria] Schaffer: [to commission counsel Constance Chambers] you’re going on the assumption that Mr. Shapiro for the University of Connecticut has really conceded that these are documents that are available?
“[Assistant Attorney General Paul M.] Shapiro: No question, no question, and I’ll state it right on the record that he has a right to documents in the possession of the university that concern him.
“Schaffer: It’s just a question of whether he pays for them or not.”
The second appeal by the plaintiff in the Middlesex judicial district of FIC 90-390 through FIC 90-398, of which we take judicial notice, was dismissed on November 6, 1991, and was not docketed by the Superior Court. We also take judicial notice of a third administrative appeal, relating to these same matters, which was docketed by the Middlesex judicial district as CV 91-0063703S, and a civil action against the same defendants, and relating to the same issues, commenced by the plaintiff in the Middlesex judicial district and docketed as CV 91-0060595S.