Butts v. Bysiewicz
| Decision Date | 22 October 2010 |
| Docket Number | SC 18663 |
| Parties | JOHN W. BUTTS v. SUSAN BYSIEWICZ, SECRETARY OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
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Rogers, C. J., and Katz, Palmer, McLachlan, Eveleigh and Vertefeuille, Js.
Argued September 15—officially released October 26, 2010
Michael S. Taylor, with whom were Brendon P. Levesque and, on the brief, Wesley W. Horton, for the appellant (plaintiff).
Michael K. Skold, assistant attorney general, with whom were Robert W. Clark, assistant attorney general, and, on the brief, Richard Blumenthal, attorney general, for the appellee (defendant).
This certified public interest appeal raises the question of whether the Secretary of the State has discretion to place a candidate's name on the ballot as a nominee of a political party when the candidate failed to deliver the certificate of the party's endorsement to the Secretary of the State within the deadline prescribed under General Statutes § 9-388, 1 and, if not, whether the court can exercise its equitable authority to order the Secretary of the State to do so. The plaintiff, John W. Butts, appeals, upon the Chief Justice's grant of certification pursuant to General Statutes § 52-265a, 2from the trial court's judgment denying the plaintiff's request for an injunction compelling the defendant, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, to place the plaintiff's name on the general election ballot as the endorsed Democratic candidate for judge of probate for the thirtysecond probate district. Because of the expeditious nature of the election proceedings, on September 15, 2010, we announced from the bench our decision affirming the trial court's judgment and indicated that a written opinion would follow in due course. This is that opinion.
The record reveals the following stipulated or undisputed facts. The plaintiff is the incumbent judge of probate for the probate district of Salem. Pursuant to a recent reorganization of the probate court system, on January 5, 2011, the district of Salem will be incorporated into the newly established thirty-second probate district. On May 11, 2010, the Democratic party held a convention for purposes of endorsing a candidate for judge of probate for the thirty-second probate district. The plaintiff unanimously was endorsed that day as the party's candidate. No other person filed a petition seeking a Democratic primary for that position.
As the party's endorsed candidate, the plaintiff was required, pursuant to § 9-388, to deliver a certificate attesting to the party's endorsement to the defendant by 4 p.m. on the fourteenth day following the convention, which in the present case was May 25, 2010. The statute directs the candidate to either mail the certificate by certified mail, return receipt requested, or deliver the certificate in person and obtain a receipt from the defendant evidencing delivery. See footnote 1 of this opinion.
On May 11, the day of the convention, the plaintiff filled out and signed a certificate of endorsement. After a discussion among party officials, Cyril Longton, the secretary of the convention, agreed to mail the certificate to the defendant. Longton did not send the certificate by certified mail. Instead, on May 15, 2010, Longton delivered to a clerk at the post office in Uncasville an envelope containing the certificate and paid the proper postage for the envelope to be sent by first class mail to the defendant's office. The envelope bore the correctaddress for the defendant's office and Longton's return address. The certificate of endorsement was not received by the defendant's office nor was it returned to Longton's address.
On July 5, 2010, the plaintiff learned that his name was not listed on the defendant's website as the Democratic nominee for the thirty-second probate district. The defendant's office thereafter informed the plaintiff that it had not listed his name because it did not have his certificate of endorsement. At the plaintiff's request, the defendant's staff conducted a search of their offices but did not locate the certificate. On July 7, 2010, the defendant's office informed the plaintiff that, because it had not received the party's certificate of endorsement by the deadline prescribed under § 9-388, it would not place his name on the ballot for the general election as the endorsed Democratic candidate. On August 11, 2010, the plaintiff hand delivered a substitute original certificate of endorsement to the defendant.
Two days later, the plaintiff commenced the present action seeking, inter alia, a permanent injunction to compel the defendant to place the plaintiff's name on the ballot for the general election as the endorsed Democratic candidate for probate judge for the thirty-second probate district.3 On August 27, 2010, the trial court issued its memorandum of decision denying the plaintiff's request. The court concluded that the text of the statute making the endorsement invalid if it was received untimely compelled such a result. The trial court rejected the plaintiff's reliance on a trio of Superior Court decisions that had ordered the Secretary the State to place candidates' names on the ballot when their failure to deliver the certificate within the prescribed deadline was due to inadvertence under the reasoning that the interests of the party and the voters outweighed the Secretary of the State's interest in a strict construction of the statute. The trial court determined that two of the decisions effectively had been overruled by the 2006 amendment to § 9-388, which had added the language rendering the untimely certificate invalid and requiring delivery by specified methods. See Public Acts 2006, No. 06-137, § 2 (P.A. 06-137). The court determined that the third decision, rendered after the effective date of PA. 06-137, had failed to account for the legislature's intent in amending the statute. The court therefore concluded that the plaintiff was not entitled to injunctive relief. This certified public interest appeal followed. See footnote 2 of this opinion.
The plaintiff thereafter filed a motion in the trial court seeking an articulation as to whether ''the court concluded that it does not have authority to issue an injunction in this case, or that it has the authority but declines to issue an injunction as an exercise of discretion.'' The trial court thereafter issued the following articulation: ''The court concluded that it lacked authority to enjointhe [defendant] because the 2006 amendments to... § 9-388 were intended to invalidate late filed certificates of endorsement.''
On appeal, the plaintiff claims that: (1) the defendant has discretion to accept a certificate of endorsement filed after the time specified in § 9-388, as long as there is substantial compliance with the purpose of the statute; and (2) regardless of whether the defendant has such discretion, the trial court has equitable authority to compel the defendant to place the plaintiff's name on the ballot.4 The plaintiff contends that § 9-388 makes a distinction between competent evidence of the endorsement—the certificate—and the party's actual endorsement of the candidate. He contends that, although a failure to file timely the certificate of endorsement renders the certificate invalid, the endorsement is not similarly rendered invalid. Instead, according to the plaintiff, an untimely filing merely results in a presumption, which may be rebutted by competent evidence, that the candidate has not been endorsed. Thus, even if compliance with the statutory deadline is mandatory, the plaintiff posits that substantial compliance with the purpose of § 9-388—timely presented, competent evidence of the party's nomination— is legally sufficient and consistent with the constitutional rights implicated.
The defendant responds that a failure to file timely a certificate of endorsement in accordance with § 9-388 is a fatal defect for which neither the defendant nor the court can provide relief. In support of this contention, the defendant points to the text of the statute and claims that the plaintiff's construction would yield irrational results. The defendant further contends that the 2006 amendment to § 9-388 was a legislative rejection of the Superior Court cases that had afforded relief under similar circumstances. The defendant also asserts that the deadline under § 9-388 is only one part of a comprehensive election calendar that would be difficult to implement if parties are not required to adhere strictly to such deadlines. See http: //www.sots.c-t.gov/sots/lib/sots/electionservices/calendars/2010election2010_ele...
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