CITY OF NEW HAVEN v. LOCAL 8846/18/1996
The plaintiff, the city of New Haven, discharged the grievant, Benedetto Minichino, from his position as a sanitarian on April 18, 1986. The state board of mediation and arbitration (board), after denying a continuance requested by the plaintiff due to its attorney's illness, issued an arbitration award in favor of the grievant. The plaintiff appealed to the trial court, which found misconduct on the part of the board pursuant to General Statutes § 52-418 (a)(3) on the basis of
the board's refusal to grant the continuance. Because the trial court also found, however, that the plaintiff had waived any defect in the proceedings due to the board's misconduct, it denied the plaintiff's application to vacate the arbitration award. The Appellate Court reversed the judgment of the trial court, holding that the misconduct of the board required that the award be vacated. New Haven v. Local 884, Council 4, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, 38 Conn. App. 709, 714, 662 A.2d 818 (1995). The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether a party may waive misconduct, as defined in § 52-418 (a)(3), by an arbitration board. We conclude that a party may waive such misconduct, and that in this case the trial court properly found that the plaintiff had waived the misconduct on the part of the board.
The record discloses the following undisputed facts. Following the plaintiff's termination of the grievant's employment on April 18, 1986, the defendant, Local 884, Council 4, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, filed a grievance on his behalf with the board, which issued an award in favor of the grievant. The plaintiff appealed to the trial court and, following a complicated procedural history not relevant to this appeal, the matter was returned to the board, before which each party sought and received at least one continuance. The matter was then assigned for what was to be a final hearing on August 14, 1991.
Clifton E. Graves, Jr., then counsel for the plaintiff, became ill the night before the scheduled hearing. Graves telephoned the board offices the next morning
and spoke first with counsel for the defendant, who advised him that the granting of a continuance was the board's decision. Graves spoke next with the board chairperson, who gave him three options: (1) attend the hearing in person; (2) send an alternate from the office of the corporation counsel; or (3) forfeit his right to be present at the hearing.
Graves testified that, because of the nature of his illness and the lack of time to prepare someone to take his place, no satisfactory alternate was available. The board and the defendant then proceeded with the hearing. The board drafted a proposed resolution, which the chairperson read to Graves over the telephone. Graves agreed to listen to the proposed resolution because, as he testified, "if in fact the board was determining to move forward, which I got clear indications that was the case, then the only alternative we had was perhaps in the best interest of the [plaintiff] to look at, or at least to listen to, the proposed resolution to this matter." Graves agreed to the proposed resolution, which was subsequently issued by the board as a written arbitration award.
The plaintiff filed an application to vacate the arbitration award in the Superior Court, claiming that the board's refusal to grant a continuance to Graves due to his illness was improper, and that the subsequent resolution Graves entered into was the result of coercion by the board. The defendant filed an application to confirm the award.
The trial court "agree with the plaintiff's first claim, that it was improper to deny Mr. Graves a continuance because of illness. This same request under these c
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