Labbe v. Hartford Pension Com'n

• Decision Date: 20 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 15275,15275
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: , 153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3000 Allen J. LABBE et al. v. HARTFORD PENSION COMMISSION et al.

Page 490

682 A.2d 490

239 Conn. 168, 153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3000

Allen J. LABBE et al. v. HARTFORD PENSION COMMISSION et al.

No. 15275.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued March 19, 1996.

Decided Aug. 20, 1996.

Leon M. Rosenblatt, West Hartford, for appellants (named plaintiff et al.).

Karen K. Buffkin, Assistant Corporation Counsel, with whom, on the brief, was Pedro E. Segarra, Corporation Counsel, for appellees (named defendant et al.).

Scott R. Chadwick, Hartford, with whom, on the brief, was Frank J. Szilagyi, for appellee (defendant Hartford Police Union).

Before PETERS, C.J., and BORDEN, BERDON, NORCOTT and PALMER, JJ.

BORDEN, Associate Justice.

The dispositive issues in this appeal are whether: (1) the trial court, Freed, J., properly granted a motion by the defendants, the Hartford pension commission (commission) and the city of Hartford (city), to dismiss the case against them for lack of subject matter jurisdiction; and (2) the trial court, Aurigemma, J., properly set aside a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiffs and rendered judgment for the defendant, the Hartford police union (union). The plaintiffs, ¹ Allen J. Labbe, John Murdock, John D. Raphael, Gerry Pleasent and Eddie M. Rivera, appeal from both of those judgments. With respect to Labbe, Murdock, Raphael and Pleasent, we conclude that their appeal from the judgment of dismissal is moot. With respect to Rivera, we conclude that the trial court properly dismissed the case against the city and the commission. With respect to all of the plaintiffs, we conclude that the trial court properly set aside the verdict against the union. Accordingly, with respect to Labbe, Murdock, Raphael and Pleasent, we dismiss their appeal from the judgment of Judge Freed dismissing their case against the city and commission. With respect to Rivera, we affirm the judgment of Judge Freed. With respect to Labbe, Murdock, Raphael, Pleasent and Rivera, we affirm the judgment of Judge Aurigemma setting aside the verdict and rendering judgment for the union.

The underlying dispute between the parties involves the question of whether the plaintiffs, all current or former Hartford police officers and Vietnam era military veterans, could add their periods of military service to the time that they had served as police officers in order to reach the time needed to qualify for normal retirement, that is, to receive a city pension immediately upon retiring. Judge Freed dismissed, for failure to exhaust contractual remedies, the plaintiffs' complaint against the city and the commission alleging breach of a collective bargaining agreement. Following a trial in which the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs on their complaint against the union alleging breach of both the union's duty of fair representation and the union's bylaws, Judge Aurigemma set aside the verdict and rendered judgment for the union.

The following facts and procedural history are undisputed. In 1987, at the time that the collective bargaining agreement that is at dispute in this action was negotiated the plaintiffs were all employed as police officers by the city and were all members of the union, which was the exclusive collective bargaining representative for police officers. The plaintiffs' employment was at all times subject to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, which was periodically negotiated between the city and the union. The commission administers the municipal employees' retirement fund to which all police officers belong, and which is financed in part under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the union.

In October, 1987, the union and the city entered into a collective bargaining agreement effective July 1, 1987, through June 30, 1990. This agreement amended certain provisions of the preceding collective bargaining agreement with respect to pension benefits. ² The agreement contained a new provision that provided any veteran of the armed services who had served during time of war with the opportunity to purchase up to four years of military time to be used in the calculation of the police officer's city pension.

During casual discussions among police officers, a question arose as to whether military time could be used "up front," that is, to reduce the twenty years needed to qualify for normal retirement, or whether it could be used only "on the back end," that is, to increase the total amount of pension to be paid after an officer reached normal retirement, but not to reduce the time that an officer was required to work in order to be eligible for normal retirement. Some of the officers were aware that veterans of World War II had been permitted to purchase military time and apply it up front. ³ They wondered whether, pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, Vietnam era veterans would be permitted to do the same.

In early July, 1988, Labbe met with Thomas Grodecki in order to discuss his retirement plans. Grodecki was the vice president of the union, was a member of the commission, and had been a member of the union's negotiating team for the collective bargaining agreement. He was the union official considered to be the most knowledgeable about pensions. At the time he met with Grodecki, Labbe had been employed by the city for approximately seventeen years, and had the option of purchasing three years and ten months of military time to be applied to his pension benefits. Labbe and Grodecki discussed whether, pursuant to the agreement, Labbe would be permitted to use his military time up front and, therefore, be able to retire immediately with full pension benefits. ⁴ After speaking with Grodecki, Labbe then went to the office of the city treasurer, where he spoke to Terry McNamara and David Cameron, who are pension counselors, about purchasing his military time and using it up front. McNamara then calculated the amount that Labbe would be required to pay in order to purchase his military time. Labbe then went to his credit union, where he took out a loan for approximately $6800, and used that money to purchase his military time.

On July 13, 1988, Labbe submitted a letter of resignation to the chief of police, Bernard Sullivan, effective October 11, 1988, the date on which Labbe believed that his years working for the police department, combined with his military time, gave him the requisite twenty years needed for normal retirement. Sullivan returned the letter to Labbe with a notation that Labbe did not have sufficient time to qualify for normal retirement and inquired whether it was Labbe's intention to retire without being able to collect a pension immediately.

At some time between the ratification of the collective bargaining agreement in October, 1987, and August 5, 1988, the city manager, Alfred Gatta, and the union had taken different positions about the rate at which military time would increase pension benefits. Gatta, who had not been part of the negotiating team for the city, claimed that the agreement provided that military time should be paid at the rate of 2 percent per year, but the union claimed that it should be paid at the rate of 2.65 percent per year. Officials of the city and the union held an unspecified number of meetings during that time period in order to determine the rate at which military time would be paid.

On August 5, 1988, officials of the city and the union entered into an agreement (August agreement), that provided that military time would be paid at the rate of 2.65 percent per year. The August agreement also indicated that military time could not be used up front. ⁵ The only union members who participated in the negotiation of the August agreement were James Quigley, the president of the union, and Grodecki. At the time of the August agreement, Quigley had been a police officer for eighteen years and eleven months, and had purchased two years and two months of military time, and Grodecki had been a police officer for twenty years and two months, and had purchased two years of military time. Grodecki, therefore, had already reached his normal retirement date, and Quigley was within approximately one year of his normal retirement date. Although union members did not have an opportunity to vote on the August agreement, Grodecki immediately posted notices informing them about the August agreement. ⁶

On September 26, 1988, Labbe submitted a second letter of resignation to Sullivan, who accepted this resignation. Although Labbe later attempted to withdraw his resignation, the city discharged Labbe on October 14, 1988, and Sullivan did not forward his application for pension benefits to the commission. In December, 1988, Labbe submitted an application for benefits directly to the commission. The commission sought guidance from Eunice Groark, corporation counsel for the city, about how to respond to Labbe's application. The commission subsequently rejected Labbe's application for a pension. As a result, Labbe was required to wait until October 10, 1991, his normal retirement date, to begin receiving pension benefits. Once he began receiving his pension, however, Labbe received an additional $4400 per year as a result of the August agreement that provided that military time would increase pension benefits by 2.65 percent per year.

On May 22, 1989, the plaintiffs filed an eight count complaint against the commission, the city and the union, alleging a variety of constitutional and contractual claims, ⁷ including claims that the city and the commission had breached the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, and that the union had breached both the duty of fair representation and its bylaws. Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that: (1) the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement permitting the purchase of military time gave them the right to use that time up front, and that the city and the commission had violated the terms of that agreement by...