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State v. Salmon8/10/1999
The principal issue in this certified appeal is whether a bail bondsman, who is a nonparty to the underlying criminal action, may appeal pursuant to General Statutes § 52-263, from the trial court's order to forfeit its bond. We conclude that, as a nonparty, a bail bondsman does not have a right of appeal under § 52-263.
The record discloses the following factual and procedural history. The defendant in the underlying criminal case, Ralston Salmon, was arrested and charged with violating General Statutes §§ 21a-279 (a) and (c), and 21a-277 (a). He posted a surety bond of $150,000 and was released. B & B Bail Bonds Agency, Inc. (bondsman), was the surety that furnished the bond. When the defendant later failed to appear for a court date, the trial court, on January 7, 1997, ordered the forfeiture of the bond. The court, pursuant to General Statutes § 54-65a, simultaneously ordered the rearrest of the defendant and a stay of execution on the forfeiture for six months. The bondsman located the defendant in Jamaica, but was not permitted to remove him without extradition authorization from Connecticut. Accordingly, the bondsman requested that the state's attorney's office extradite the defendant to Connecticut, which it refused to do. The stay of execution subsequently lapsed, and the forfeiture of the bond became due. After the state settled its claim with the bondsman for $75,000, the bondsman moved in the trial court for both a rebate of the bond forfeiture and a release from the bond. The trial court denied these motions, and the bondsman appealed from the denial of the motion for release to the Appellate Court.
The Appellate Court, acting sua sponte, placed the matter on its calendar on the question of "why the appeal should not be dismissed because review by way of an appeal is not available to a nonparty." After hearing argument on that question, the Appellate Court dismissed the appeal. We granted the bondsman's petition for certification on this issue. Following oral argument, we decided, sua sponte, to consider the case en banc; see footnote 1 of this opinion; and to request supplemental briefs by the parties.
Before this court, the bondsman claims that the Appellate Court's interpretation of § 52-263 was incorrect. Specifically, the bondsman claims that review by way of appeal pursuant to § 52-263 is available based on our construction in prior cases of the term "party" contained in § 52-263. We disagree, and conclude that review by way of appeal pursuant to § 52-263 is available only to parties to an underlying action.
I.
We first must determine the parameters of the "party" requirement of § 52-263. Such a determination is a matter of statutory construction and, therefore, a matter of law over which this court's review is plenary. Wright Bros. Builders, Inc. v. Dowling, 247 Conn. 218, 226, 720 A.2d 235 (1998). "The process of statutory interpretation involves a reasoned search for the intention of the legislature. . . . In other words, we seek to determine, in a reasoned manner, the meaning of the statutory language as applied to the facts of this case, including the question of whether the language actually does apply. In seeking to determine that meaning, we look to the words of the statute itself, to the legislative history and circumstances surrounding its enactment, to the legislative policy it was designed to implement, and to its relationship to existing legislation and common law principles governing the same general subject matter." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) United Illuminating Co. v. New Haven, 240 Conn. 422, 431, 692 A.2d 742 (1997).
We begin our analysis by examining the plain la
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