Garcia v. City of Hartford, No. 18205.

972 A.2d 706

292 Conn. 334

Edwin GARCIA v. CITY OF HARTFORD et al.

No. 18205.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued April 22, 2009.

Decided June 30, 2009.

Robert F. Ludgin, Hartford, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Catharine H. Freeman, assistant corporation counsel, with whom, on the brief, was John Rose, Jr., corporation counsel, for the appellees (defendants).

ROGERS, C.J., and KATZ, VERTEFEUILLE, ZARELLA and McLACHLAN, Js.

KATZ, J.

The sole issue in this appeal is whether the plaintiff, Edwin Garcia, a retired police officer, is required to seek relief through the grievance procedures under the collective bargaining agreement (agreement) between the named defendant, the city of Hartford,¹ and the Hartford police union (union) before he can bring a mandamus action to compel the defendant to comply with a provision in that agreement allowing the defendant's employees to trade in accumulated unused sick time in order to increase their monthly pension benefits.² The trial court concluded that, because the plaintiff was required to exhaust the remedies provided under that agreement and had not pleaded facts to establish an exception to the exhaustion requirement, the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the case, and, accordingly, dismissed the action. We conclude that the trial court improperly determined that the agreement can be interpreted to require a retiree to exhaust the remedies available to employees therein. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's judgment.

The record reveals the following facts alleged by the plaintiff, which are accepted as true for purposes of a motion to dismiss, and procedural history. The plaintiff resigned from the defendant's police department on June 26, 1996, after sixteen years of service. On the date of his resignation, he was a member of the union and was covered by the agreement between the union and the defendant in effect for the period of July 1, 1996, to June 30, 1999. Although, at the time of his retirement, he did not yet qualify for pension benefits, pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the plaintiff applied for and began to collect pension benefits upon the twentieth anniversary of his start date. Under the agreement, as set forth in the plaintiff's complaint, "an employee, whose retirement becomes effective after July 1, 1994, may exchange a portion of his/her accumulated sick leave for up to four (4) years of additional pension service time for the purpose of computing the amount of his/her retirement allowance." Thereafter, the plaintiff made several unsuccessful attempts to have the defendant's pension commission and personnel department staff allow him to trade in the number of days of his accumulated sick time that correlated to four additional years of pension service time so as to increase his retirement allowance. Concluding that he did not have standing to bring a grievance pursuant to the agreement because he lacked employee status, the plaintiff subsequently filed the present action seeking a writ of mandamus.

The defendant moved to dismiss the action, claiming that the trial court did not have jurisdiction over the matter because the plaintiff had failed to exhaust the remedies provided under the agreement. Specifically, the defendant contended that the plaintiff was required to pursue relief through the grievance procedures under the agreement before he could bring any judicial action. The plaintiff contended in response that, because he did not have standing to pursue the grievance procedure, as he was no longer an "employee" under the terms of the agreement, any attempt to avail himself of administrative remedies would have been futile. In support of his memorandum of law in opposition to the defendant's motion to dismiss, the plaintiff submitted, inter alia, a copy of relevant portions of the agreement. See footnote 4 of this opinion.

The trial court concluded that, because the plaintiff had alleged violations of the agreement, he fell under the general rule requiring that he exhaust the procedures set forth therein. The court rejected the plaintiff's argument that resort to the grievance procedures would have been futile because he no longer was an employee covered under the agreement in light of the facts that the plaintiff had: (1) alleged in his complaint that the defendant had allowed other former employees to trade in their accumulated sick leave; and (2) failed to allege that he did not have access to the grievance procedure under the agreement. Accordingly, the trial court dismissed the mandamus action, and this appeal followed.³

The plaintiff claims that the trial court improperly concluded that he was required to exhaust the grievance procedures under the agreement. We conclude that, because the plaintiff could not avail himself of those grievance procedures, the trial court improperly determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the case. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case for further proceedings.

We first set forth the well established standard of review and our relevant jurisprudence regarding the doctrine of exhaustion of remedies (exhaustion doctrine). "In ruling upon whether a complaint survives a motion to dismiss, a court must take the facts to be those alleged in the complaint, including those facts necessarily implied from the allegations, construing them in a manner most favorable to the pleader.... A motion to dismiss tests, inter alia, whether, on the face of the record, the court is without jurisdiction.... Because the [exhaustion doctrine] implicates subject matter jurisdiction, [the court] must decide as a threshold matter whether that doctrine requires dismissal of the [plaintiff's] claim.... [B]ecause [a] determination regarding a trial court's subject matter jurisdiction is a question of law, our review is plenary." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Neiman v. Yale University, 270 Conn. 244, 250-51, 851 A.2d 1165 (2004).

"Under [the exhaustion doctrine], a trial court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over an action that seeks a remedy that could be provided through an administrative proceeding, unless and until that remedy has been sought in the administrative forum.... In the absence of exhaustion of that remedy, the action must be dismissed." (Citation omitted.) Drumm v. Brown, 245 Conn. 657, 676, 716 A.2d 50 (1998). "The [exhaustion doctrine] is applied in a number of different situations ... including when an exclusive grievance or arbitration procedure is contained in a collective bargaining agreement and when an administrative appeal is taken." (Citation omitted.) Neiman v. Yale University, supra, 270 Conn. at 253, 851 A.2d 1165; accord Hunt v. Prior, 236 Conn. 421, 431, 673 A.2d 514 (1996) ("[f]ailure to exhaust the grievance procedures deprives the court of subject matter jurisdiction" [internal quotation marks omitted]). "The rationale for the [exhaustion] doctrine, however, is slightly different in each context. In the collective bargaining context, we have stated that, [t]he purpose of the exhaustion requirement is to encourage the use of grievance procedures, rather than the courts, for settling disputes. A contrary rule which would permit an individual employee to completely sidestep available grievance procedures in favor of a lawsuit has little to commend it." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Neiman v. Yale University, supra, at 253-54, 851 A.2d 1165.

Notwithstanding the important public policy considerations underlying the exhaustion requirement, this court has carved out several exceptions from the exhaustion doctrine; Harwinton Drilling & Engineering Co. v. Public Utilities Control Authority, 188 Conn. 90, 94, 448 A.2d 210 (1982); although "only infrequently and only for narrowly defined purposes." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Polymer Resources, Ltd. v. Keeney, 227 Conn. 545, 561, 630 A.2d 1304 (1993); LaCroix v. Board of Education, 199 Conn. 70, 79, 505 A.2d 1233 (1986). Such narrowly defined purposes include "when recourse to the ... remedy would be futile or inadequate." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Stepney, LLC v. Fairfield, 263 Conn. 558, 565, 821 A.2d 725 (2003). A remedy is futile or inadequate if the decision maker is without authority to grant the requested relief. Cf. Mendillo v. Board of Education, 246 Conn. 456, 467, 717 A.2d 1177 (1998). "It is futile to seek a remedy only when such action could not result in a favorable decision and invariably would result in further judicial proceedings." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Simko v. Ervin, 234 Conn. 498, 507, 661 A.2d 1018 (1995).

It is well established that "[u]nions and their employers have broad contractual authority to provide administrative remedies for disputes arising out of the employment relationship." Trigila v. Hartford, 217 Conn. 490, 494, 586 A.2d 605 (1991). "The authority to ... settle a grievance is strictly limited by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and the submission by the parties." Hartford v. Hartford Municipal Employees Assn., 259 Conn. 251, 284, 788 A.2d 60 (2002). In the present case, the agreement provides grievance procedures for employees to enforce the terms therein. Therefore, if the trial court correctly determined that the plaintiff was entitled to enforce the terms of the agreement under the grievance procedure, the court likewise correctly dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction for failure to pursue that remedy.

As we often observe, Connecticut law provides that "[a] contract must be construed to effectuate the intent of the parties, which is determined from the language used interpreted in the light of the situation of the parties and the circumstances connected with the transaction.... [T]he intent of the parties is to be ascertained by a fair and reasonable construction of the written words and ... the language used must be accorded its common,...