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Taylor v. State Board of Mediation and Arbitration8/24/1999
The plaintiff, Thaddeus Taylor, appeals from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his appeal from the decision of the state board of mediation and arbitration (board). The board upheld the termination of the plaintiff's employment by the department of correction and concluded that the termination was for just cause. The trial court dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction after concluding that the plaintiff had failed to file his appeal and to serve the board within forty-five days after the decision was mailed as required by General Statutes § 4-183 (c) of the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act (UAPA). On appeal, the plaintiff claims that the trial court (1) improperly dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and (2) abused its discretion by not ordering the defendant to prepare the transcript of the administrative hearing as prescribed by state law. We affirm the judgment of dismissal. As a result, we need not address the plaintiff's second claim.
The following background is relevant to the resolution of this appeal. The arbitrator who heard the case rendered his decision on March 28, 1996, and the decision was mailed on that date. On April 27, 1996, the plaintiff, who was incarcerated in a federal prison for a federal offense, mailed to the board, by regular United States mail, a letter enclosing a "Notice of Appeal" from the decision. On that date, he also sent to the Superior Court at Hartford a document titled "Plaintiff's Pro-se Motion for Appeal." In that motion, the plaintiff requested the court to "enter" his appeal of the board's decision and also informed the court that he was in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons but would be available for court proceedings through the office of the United States Marshall. He failed, however, to enclose the standard filing fee for the appeal and to furnish a return of service on the board.
On August 27, 1996, the plaintiff sent to the Hartford Superior Court a civil summons form (JD-CV-1), which an assistant clerk signed and returned to him to serve on the defendant board named therein. On December 27, 1996, the plaintiff returned the summons and other papers to the clerk's office, but they had not been served on the board. The case, nevertheless, was placed on the court docket. The clerk received a letter from the plaintiff dated May 19, 1997, in which he claimed that on February 2, 1997, he had sent a copy of his appeal complaint to the defendant by certified mail and had so informed the office of the attorney general. He requested a copy of his complaint so that he could serve it again.
On May 28, 1997, the trial court sent a notice to the plaintiff of a motion to dismiss the case for failure to serve the board and of a hearing on that motion scheduled for June 30, 1997. The notice instructed the plaintiff to submit to the court his proof that service of the appeal was made on the defendant and warned that, without such proof, the appeal would be dismissed for failure to serve the appeal. In response to this notice, the plaintiff, by a letter dated June 23, 1997, requested a thirty day extension of the time for the hearing on the motion to dismiss so that he could effectuate service on the defendant. The court never ruled explicitly on the plaintiff's request for an extension but, on July 1, 1997, granted the motion to dismiss. The court held that the failure to file and serve the appeal within forty-five days after the board mailed its decision, as required by § 4-183 (c), precluded the exercise of jurisdiction over the appeal. This appeal followed.
I.
The plaintiff claims that the trial court improperly dismissed the appeal for lack
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