Eielson v. Parker

• Decision Date: 05 February 1980
• Citation: 427 A.2d 814,179 Conn. 552
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Rodney EIELSON et al. v. Henry E. PARKER et al.

Page 814

427 A.2d 814

179 Conn. 552

Rodney EIELSON et al. v. Henry E. PARKER et al.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Nov. 8, 1979.

Decided Feb. 5, 1980.

Louis Parley, West Hartford, for plaintiffs.

Richard C. Robinson, Hartford, with whom was Milton Sorokin, Hartford, for defendants.

Before COTTER, C. J., and LOISELLE, BOGDANSKI, PETERS and HEALEY, JJ.

PETERS, Justice.

This is a class action challenging the constitutionality of the state statute establishing a graduated salary system for the judges of the Superior Court. The plaintiffs, formerly judges of the Court of Common Pleas, were elevated to the Superior Court as part of the 1976 court reorganization act which transferred all trial jurisdiction to the Superior Court. They are seeking an order to compel the defendants Henry E. Parker as treasurer of the state of Connecticut and J. Edward Caldwell as comptroller of the state of Connecticut to pay them salaries which are equal in amount to those paid to other judges of the Superior Court. The case is here on facts stipulated by the parties and on an agreed statement of four questions of law that were reserved by the trial court for the consideration and advice of this court.

The stipulation of facts establishes the following for the purposes of this adjudication: The statute establishing the salaries for judges of the Superior Court, General Statutes, § 51-47 as amended by Public Acts 1976, No. 76-436, §§ 10a and 35, and Public Acts 1978, No. 78-377, § 1 ¹ was enacted as part of the act which transferred all trial jurisdiction to the Superior Court and eliminated the lower courts. This act also expanded the number of judgeships on the Superior Court bench. The plaintiffs, all formerly judges of the Court of Common Pleas, were elevated to the Superior Court on July 1, 1978 to assume their new positions. Under the applicable statutes, judges who were sitting on the Superior Court as of June 30, 1978, will at least initially receive higher salaries than those who commenced to serve on that court on or after July 1, 1978. The differences in salary are not based on differences either in competency or in responsibility in the performance of judicial duties. Nor are the salary differences based upon differences in experience except that the word experience excludes the fact that those Superior Court judges who are not members of the plaintiff class have all been Superior Court judges for a longer period of time than any member of the plaintiff class. The provision for salary differentials depending upon length of service as a judge of the Superior Court constitutes a change from prior Connecticut law. Under the pre-merger compensation system, judges who as members of the Court of Common Pleas had received salaries of $28,500 were entitled to the $34,500 salary of Superior Court judges immediately upon their appointment to that bench. By contrast, under the judicial salary statute as amended in 1976, the plaintiffs as newly appointed Superior Court judges will not receive the salary of "old" pre-merger Superior Court judges until they have completed five years' service on the Superior Court. During their first year as Superior Court judges, these plaintiffs' salaries were the same as those which they formerly were paid as judges of the Court of Common Pleas.

The questions of law which have been stipulated and reserved to this court for our consideration and advice are as follows: (1) Does § 51-47 of the General Statutes as amended by Public Acts 1976, No. 76-436 and Public Acts 1978, No. 78-377 violate the separation of powers provided for by articles second and fifth of the constitution of Connecticut by establishing salary levels for those Superior Court judges who commenced to serve as Superior Court judges on or after July 1, 1978, that, at least initially, are below those established for those Superior Court judges who were serving as Superior Court judges on June 30, 1978? (2) Does § 51-47 of the General Statutes as amended by Public Acts 1976, No. 76-436 and Public Acts 1978, No. 78-377 violate the equal protection clauses of article first, § 20, of the constitution of Connecticut and of the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution by establishing salary levels for those Superior Court judges who commenced to serve as Superior Court judges on or after July 1, 1978, that, at least initially, are below those established for those Superior Court judges who were serving as Superior Court judges on June 30, 1978? (3) If the answer to either of the above questions is in the affirmative, must all of the judges of the Superior Court receive the same salary? (4) If the answer to questions 1 or 2 is in the affirmative, does the Supreme Court or the Superior Court have power to order the defendants to pay salaries to Superior Court judges in the absence of any lawful statute authorizing the defendants to pay such salaries. As is clear from the formulation of these questions, we will not reach the latter two unless we decide one of the first two questions in the affirmative.

The statute whose constitutionality is at issue is General Statutes § 51-47 as amended by Public Acts 1976, No. 76-436, §§ 10a and 35, and Public Acts 1978, No. 78-377, § 1. The statute provides, in relevant part: "Sec. 51-47. Salaries of judges. Practice of law prohibited. The judges of the state- maintained courts shall receive annually salaries as follows: ... each judge of the superior court who was serving as a judge of the superior court on June 30, 1978, thirty-eight thousand five hundred dollars; each judge of the superior court who commences to serve as a superior court judge on or after July 1, 1978, shall receive in the year he first so serves in said superior court twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars; each judge of the superior court who has completed one year of judicial service as a superior court judge computed from the first day of the month after twelve months of service, thirty-four thousand five hundred dollars; each judge of the superior court who has completed two years of judicial service as a superior court judge, computed from the first day of the month after twenty-four months of service, thirty-five thousand five hundred dollars; each judge of the superior court who has completed three years of judicial service as a superior court judge, computed from the first day of the month after thirty-six months of service, thirty-six thousand five hundred dollars; each judge of the superior court who has completed four years of judicial service as a superior court judge, computed from the first day of the month after forty-eight months of service, thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars; and each judge of said court who has completed five years of judicial service as a superior court judge, computed from the first day of the month after sixty months of service, thirty-eight thousand five hundred dollars." Although the statute was again amended by Public Acts 1979, No. 79-608, § 1, the 1979 amendment does not affect the basic structure of § 51-47 but only alters the respective dollar amounts.

I

The plaintiffs' argument that § 51-47 as amended violates the doctrine of separation of powers is based upon article second of the constitution of Connecticut. That article simply provides that: "The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them confided to a separate magistracy, to wit, those which are legislative, to one; those which are executive, to another; and those which are judicial, to another." The plaintiffs maintain that the legislature's enactment of a graduated salary system for Superior Court judges unconstitutionally encroaches upon functions exclusively vested by article fifth, § 1, ² in the judicial department. We do not agree.

It is important at the outset to remember that the challenge of a statute on constitutional grounds always imposes a difficult burden on the challenger. We have consistently held that every statute is presumed to be constitutional and have required invalidity to be established beyond a reasonable doubt. Engle v. Personnel Appeal Board, 175 Conn. 127, 134, 394 A.2d 731 (1978); State v. Darden, 171 Conn. 677, 678, 372 A.2d 99 (1976); State v. Warren, 169 Conn. 207, 217, 363 A.2d 91 (1975); Lublin v. Brown, 168 Conn. 212, 219, 362 A.2d 769 (1975); Wilson v. Connecticut Product Development Corporation, 167 Conn. 111, 114, 355 A.2d 72 (1974); Kellems v. Brown, 163 Conn. 478, 486, 313 A.2d 53 (1972), appeal dismissed, 409 U.S. 1099, 93 S.Ct. 911, 34 L.Ed.2d 678 (1973); Adams v. Rubinow, 157 Conn. 150, 152-53, 251 A.2d 49 (1968); Patterson v. Dempsey, 152 Conn. 431, 444, 207 A.2d 739 (1965); McGovern v. Mitchell, 78 Conn. 536, 564, 63 A. 433 (1906); Norwalk Street Ry. Co.'s Appeal, 69 Conn. 576, 594, 37 A. 1080 (1897).

The plaintiffs place heavy reliance on the judicial gloss on article second that is contained in the well-known case of McGovern v. Mitchell, supra. Justice Hamersley there opined that it was incumbent upon the legislature to " 'enact laws establishing from time to time for all members of each court a certain, uniform, and adequate compensation.' " Id., 78 Conn. 548, 63 A. 437. In determining what this language should be deemed to command, we must first place McGovern v. Mitchell, in context.

The issue in McGovern v. Mitchell was the power of the legislature to provide raises for sitting judges when the constitution of connecticut, article twenty-fourth of the amendments (now article eleventh, § 2) forbids the payment of extra compensation to a public officer during his term of office. As we have recently noted with approval, McGovern v. Mitchell held that this constitutional provision was designed only to forbid gratuitous grants of compensation and therefore did not preclude properly legislated salary increases. Scalo v. Mandanici, 179 Conn. 140, 149, 425 A.2d 1272 (1979). Justice Hamersley's...