DeLaurentis v. City of New Haven

Citation597 A.2d 807,220 Conn. 225
Decision Date20 August 1991
Docket NumberNo. 14267,14267
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
PartiesFrank DeLAURENTIS v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al.

Steven J. Errante, New Haven, for appellants (defendants).

John R. Williams, with whom, on the brief, was Sue L. Wise, New Haven, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before PETERS, C.J., and SHEA, CALLAHAN, GLASS and BORDEN, JJ.

SHEA, Justice.

We consider today what redress, if any, should be afforded a public official called to defend himself publicly against charges of wrongdoing and incompetence subsequently found by a jury to have been baseless, but some of which we conclude were grounded in probable cause as a matter of law. As a result of this determination, we set aside in part the verdicts of the jury awarding damages to the plaintiff for vexatious suit and for the intentional infliction of emotional distress and we remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

The plaintiff, Frank DeLaurentis, former chairman of the New Haven parking authority commission, sued the defendants, the city of New Haven and its then mayor, Biagio DiLieto, after the mayor first instituted and then abandoned removal proceedings against him. His six count complaint raised three claims: an unspecified claim that the trial court interpreted to be a claim under article first, § 10, of the Connecticut constitution, for the "imposition of a stigma by official action" in violation of due process; malicious prosecution; and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Each claim was framed in two counts, one against the mayor, and the other against the city. 1 The trial court struck the two counts containing the constitutional claim, but the other counts were tried to a jury, which rendered verdicts in favor of DeLaurentis.

In support of the verdicts, the jury could reasonably have found the following facts. DeLaurentis had served on the New Haven parking authority commission since he was first appointed in 1974. He was elected as its chairman in 1975. As did all other members of the commission, DeLaurentis served without pay.

The New Haven parking authority (the authority) is a municipal entity established by statute. 26 Spec. Acts 339, No. 473 (1951). It is not subject to supervision by the mayor, whose sole power over the authority is his general power to appoint and discharge the commissioners, subject to specific charter provisions. Appointments are at the mayor's discretion, but are made for staggered five year terms. During that five year term, commissioners may be removed only for cause and after a public hearing. New Haven City Charter, art. XXXIV, §§ 220, 221. 2 DeLaurentis had been reappointed to the authority in 1982 by the defendant, then mayor, Biagio DiLieto (the mayor).

The authority was responsible for the maintenance and operation of the city parking garages and public parking lots. 26 Spec. Acts 339, No. 473, §§ 3, 10 (1951). An entirely separate agency, within the city government, the department of traffic and parking, was in charge of traffic control, enforcement of parking ordinances, and other similar matters. New Haven City Charter, art. XLI, §§ 288, 289. The department of traffic and parking, and the parking authority, have entirely different budgets and sources of income. 26 Spec. Acts 339, No. 473, §§ 4, 9 (1951).

The New Haven city charter and the authority bylaws prescribed that one traffic engineer was to be included on the parking authority commission in addition to the five commissioners. That position was occupied by John Cavallero, who had also served as the authority's executive director for many years, even before DeLaurentis' appointment. At the same time Cavallero also held the position of director of the department of traffic and engineering, a salaried position paid from city funds. In addition to Cavallero and DeLaurentis, the parking authority members were Joseph Vegliante, Irvin Zeidenberg, Walter Piurek and Robert Schwartz.

In early 1983, the mayor received reports that 430 parking tickets had been found in an elevator shaft. In response, he called police chief William Farrell, who assigned detective John Prokop to investigate possible improprieties at the parking authority. The mayor knew Prokop and subsequently appointed him to the zoning board of appeals. In March, 1983, Prokop filed his report with the chief of police. Farrell forwarded the report to the mayor, who reviewed it carefully.

The report, in the words of the mayor, "reads more like the report of [a] management consultant than a detective." While much of the report contains criticism of the authority's record keeping and accountability procedures, it also explicitly states that individual authority employees who had previously been "caught stealing" were suspended only briefly but never fired; that some of these employees were related to other public officials, such as the head of security; that certain individual employees had overcharged for tickets and pocketed the difference; that a "sting" operation conducted between November, 1981, and February, 1983, indicated that more than 1000 tickets were missing from almost every month's receipts; that in December, 1981, 2189 tickets, or 2.34 percent of the total issued, were missing; and that in some cases employees were recorded as having received workers' compensation on the same days that they were actually on the job and being paid for working. The report alluded to written memoranda and other evidence that formed the basis for these factual conclusions. The mayor was shocked by what the investigation had found and asked chief Farrell to send the report to the state's attorney for New Haven county in June, 1983. The mayor neither demanded that Prokop produce his evidence nor took any action to remove any of the officials criticized in the report.

The mayor gave a copy of the report to Cavallero, who told the other commissioners that he would conduct his own investigation before the report would be released to the public. When DeLaurentis, under pressure from detective Prokop, asked the mayor what was happening about the report, the mayor told him he was waiting to hear from the state's attorney. In fact, neither Cavallero, nor the state's attorney, nor the mayor, ever took any action based upon the Prokop report.

In August, 1983, Cavallero presented a reimbursement request for $1196, the cost of his trip to the Institute of Transportation Engineers association meeting in London. DeLaurentis refused the request, on the ground that the expense was unauthorized and should, if anything, be charged against the city's, rather than the parking authority's, budget. When Cavallero presented his request to the other commissioners, DeLaurentis went to the mayor. The mayor told DeLaurentis to send Cavallero to the city's controller, who would probably refuse to honor the reimbursement request. As a result of DeLaurentis' opposition to this reimbursement, the "war" between Cavallero and DeLaurentis began in earnest.

The dispute between Cavallero and DeLaurentis ripened into a battle for control of the parking authority. In December, 1983, DeLaurentis proposed a resolution adopted by the authority, that there would be no charges to parking authority funds except for parking authority business. Prior to that date, the authority had no explicit rules and regulations on the subject. Cavallero maintained that as executive director, he had the discretion to determine what constituted parking authority business. DeLaurentis insisted that the commission or the chairman make that determination. According to the bylaws, however, Cavallero was a nonvoting member of the commission. Cavallero asked the assistant corporation counsel assigned to the parking authority, Susan Goodshall, to research the validity of the bylaw making him a nonvoting member. She reported that state statutes forbade such a restriction. Cavallero, accordingly, decided that the bylaws should be changed so that he would have a vote on the commission. He was supported by commissioners Schwartz and Zeidenberg, but opposed by commissioners DeLaurentis, Piurek and Vegliante.

About the same time, DeLaurentis, acting on a tip from the authority's controller, discovered that unauthorized or improper travel and entertainment expenditures were being paid from authority funds. He obtained thirty to forty vouchers for reimbursement from the administrative fund that either lacked the requisite number of signatures, were signed by the same official requesting reimbursement, or were unrelated to parking authority business. Some were vouchers for substantial sums: $1300 for a trip to California and $1500 for a trip to Europe. Almost all were reimbursement requests made by Frank Erff, the general manager who worked under Cavallero, or by Cavallero. All were signed by Cavallero.

In January, 1984, DeLaurentis called the mayor and asked to meet with him to discuss the vouchers. When he arrived, he was referred to Joseph Carbone, the mayor's administrative aide. Carbone reviewed the vouchers and declared that because they were just for "junkets," the reimbursements would be appropriate. In February, DeLaurentis returned with more vouchers, and met with the mayor, Carbone, and Vincent Mauro, the town Democratic party chairman and a long-time advisor of the mayor. The mayor brushed DeLaurentis' concerns aside, saying that because Carbone had already looked at the vouchers, he had no reason to do so. All three demanded that DeLaurentis write a letter to the effect that the matter had been resolved, but DeLaurentis refused.

At about the same time, a political associate of the mayor asked DeLaurentis to find a job for the mayor's brother, Tom DiLieto, who was unemployed. Tom DiLieto was put to work in the parking authority over the objections of Cavallero, who described him as a "troublemaker." Almost immediately, Tom DiLieto reported to DeLaurentis...

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