197 Conn. 566 | Conn. | 1985
While this opinion is handed down under the name of the chief justice, it is the result of collaboration on the part of all the members of the court to an unusual degree. See State v. Avcollie, 174 Conn. 100, 101, 384 A.2d 315 (1977); State v. Hayes, 127 Conn. 543, 549, 18 A.2d 895 (1941). The underlying issue in this case is whether article third, § 15, of the Connecticut constitution precludes a court from imprisoning a legislator for contempt while the legislature is in session. Before that question can be reached, however, we must decide whether the present proceedings have become moot.
The writ of error brought to this court by the plaintiff, Christopher Shays, arose out of grievance proceedings that were being conducted on March 4, 1985, before the Superior Court, N. O’Neill, J., in the case of Grievance Committee Hartford-New Britain Judicial District v. Alexander A. Goldfarb, Docket No. CV-84-0295671S.
The plaintiff’s writ of error raises, as its major issue, the question of the proper construction of that portion
The defendant’s answer to the writ of error disputes the plaintiff’s characterization of his contempt citation and the plaintiff’s construction of article third, § 15. In addition, the defendant raises two further issues relevant to the proper disposition of this case. Reminding us that the plaintiff never invoked the legislative privilege in the proceedings before Judge O’Neill, the defendant urges us to find that the privilege was effectively waived. Notably, once the plaintiff determined that he would rely upon the privilege, and so informed the trial court by his writ of error, he immediately received the deferment from imprisonment to which he claims to have been constitutionally entitled. Furthermore, recalling that the plaintiff completed the ser
In our pursuit of these various inquiries, it is important to be clear about the narrowness of the present proceedings, both as a matter of law generally and as a matter of the particular pleadings presently before us. As a matter of law generally, review pursuant to a writ of error is limited to matters appearing as of record. Naunchek v. Naunchek, 191 Conn. 110, 113, 463 A.2d 603 (1983); McClain v. Robinson, 189 Conn. 663, 668, 457 A.2d 1072 (1983); State v. Assuntino, 180 Conn. 345, 347, 429 A.2d 900 (1980). With respect to the present pleadings, the plaintiff has in his brief limited his claim of impropriety to his alleged legislative privilege, having expressly abandoned the alternate claim of lack of due process raised initially in his writ of error. Moreover, in oral argument before this court, counsel for the plaintiff expressly acknowledged that the plaintiffs conduct constituted contempt and that the trial court was authorized to impose a sanction upon the plaintiff for his contumacious conduct. The only reason this case is here, in light of these concessions, is the plaintiffs argument that, as a matter of timing, Judge O’Neill’s imposition of sanctions violated the plaintiff’s legislative privilege under the Connecticut constitution. Judge O’Neill, it is claimed, might constitutionally have sentenced the plaintiff to ten days imprisonment to commence five days after the conclusion of the 1985 session of the General Assembly, but he was constitutionally precluded from implementing a sanction of imprisonment until that time.
It is also important to note the factual posture within which these limited questions of law are presented to us. The plaintiff has served in its entirety the sentence whose legality he disputes. Indeed, he undoubtedly
On this state of the record, before proceeding to the merits of the scope of the plaintiffs legislative privilege, we must first determine whether we lack jurisdiction to hear this case on the ground of mootness. “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); McCallum v. Inland Wetlands Commission, 196 Conn. 218, 225, 492 A.2d 508 (1985); Accurate Forging Corporations. UAW Local No. 1017, 189 Conn. 24, 26, 453 A.2d 769 (1983); State Farm Life & Accident Assurance Co. v. Jackson, 188 Conn. 152, 156, 448 A.2d 832 (1982); CEUI v. CSEA, 183 Conn. 235, 246, 439 A.2d 321 (1981). “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,
The plaintiff urges us to exercise appellate jurisdiction, despite the fact that we can provide him no practical relief, because of the public importance of the question that he presents to us for resolution.
This court has never asserted jurisdiction over a case that would otherwise be moot simply on the ground of the public importance of the question presented. Apart from the numerous cases in which appeals raising serious questions about labor injunctions have been declared moot; Accurate Forging Corporation v. UAW Local No. 1017, supra; CSEA v. AFSCME, 188 Conn. 196, 448 A.2d 1341 (1982); Waterbury Hospital v. Connecticut Health Care Associates, supra; Connecticut Foundry Co. v. International Ladies Garment Workers Union, supra; we have held unreviewable questions of importance involving the authority of numerous instrumentalities of government, including the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority; DeFonce Construction Corporation v. Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, 177 Conn. 472, 474-75, 418 A.2d 906 (1979); the insurance commissioner; State Farm Life & Accident Assurance Co. v. Jackson, supra, 152-60; and the juvenile court. Maloney v. State, 179 Conn. 309, 310, 426 A.2d 288 (1979). In each instance, we have expressly concluded that we lacked jurisdiction when the principle of “capable of repetition, yet evading review” was inapplicable.
Whether this case is moot therefore turns not only on the importance of the constitutional issue that the plaintiff has raised but also on a determination that his case satisfies the overall test of “capable of repetition, yet evading review.” Although the applicability of the legislative privilege to contempt proceedings may be difficult to litigate before expiration of the privilege, this case does not satisfy the second or the third criterion identified in Delevieleuse v. Manson, supra.
The writ of error is dismissed as moot.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The plaintiff named the following as defendants in the writ of error: the local grievance committee of the Hartford-New Britain judicial district, Alexander A. Goldfarb and the Honorable Norris L. O’Neill. The substantive allegations of the writ relate solely to that aspect of the litigation between the local grievance committee and Alexander A. Goldfarb in which the plaintiff was found in contempt.
At that time, Judge Stoughton was the administrative judge for the judicial district of Hartford-New Britain.
“[General Statutes] Sec. 51-33. punishment for contempt of court. Any court may punish by fine and imprisonment any person who in its presence behaves contemptuously or in a disorderly manner; but no court may impose a greater fine than one hundred dollars or a longer term of imprisonment than six months or both.” See Naunchek v. Naunchek, 191 Conn. 110, 115, 463 A.2d 603 (1983); Moore v. State, 186 Conn. 256, 261, 440 A.2d 969 (1982).
The plaintiff at oral argument expressly disavowed any claim that his writ of error might not be moot because of possible adverse legal consequences that might result from his contempt conviction. Where collateral legal disabilities are imposed as a matter of law because of a criminal conviction, it is well established that a case will not be declared moot, even where the sentence has been fully served. See Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 108 n.3, 98 S. Ct. 330, 54 L. Ed. 2d 331 (1977); Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 53-57, 88 S. Ct. 1889, 20 L. Ed. 2d 917 (1968); Phaneuf v. Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, 166 Conn. 449, 452, 352 A.2d 291 (1974). Because contempt proceedings are not themselves criminal cases; Naunchek v. Naunchek, 191 Conn. 110, 115 n.5, 463 A.2d 603 (1983); State v. Jackson, 147 Conn. 167, 169, 158 A.2d 166 (1960); we assume, without deciding the matter, that no such collateral consequences attend a conviction for contempt.