Lechner v. Holmberg

• Decision Date: 08 June 1973
• Citation: 328 A.2d 701,165 Conn. 152
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: George J. LECHNER v. Charles Holmberg et al.

Page 701

328 A.2d 701

165 Conn. 152

George J. LECHNER v. Charles Holmberg et al.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

June 8, 1973.

Daniel R. Schaefer, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Bradford J. Ward, Deputy Chief Pros.Atty., and, on the brief, Robert K. Killian, Atty.Gen., for appellants (defendants).

Joseph M. Brophy, Bridgeport, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before HOUSE, C.J., and SHAPIRO, LOISELLE, MacDONALD and BOGDANSKI, JJ.

HOUSE, Chief Justice.

This was an action in the nature of mandamus taken to compel the defendants, who are a court reporter, a court clerk and the chief judge of the Circuit Court, to release to the plaintiff a transcript of the criminal proceedings against him in the Circuit Court, third circuit, at Danbury. The Superior Court, after a hearing on an order to show cause, issued the order of mandamus. The defendants appealed to this court.

The plaintiff was involved in an automobile accident on February 10, 1970. Criminal charges were brought against him as a result of the accident. On a trial in the Circuit Court, third circuit, at Danbury, the plaintiff was, on February 4, 1971, acquitted of the criminal charges. That court thereupon, on motion of the plaintiff, ¹ ordered all information pertaining to the charges to be erased.

The plaintiff subsequently was sued in a wrongful death action in the Superior Court arising out of the automobile accident of February 10, 1970. apparently having decided that a copy of the transcript of the previous criminal proceedings would be helpful in the defense of the wrongful death action, the plaintiff sought its release and filed in the Circuit Court a motion that that court order that the transcript be released to him. On November 8, 1971, the Circuit Court at Danbury, Dean, J., granted the plaintiff's motion and ordered that the transcript be delivered to the plaintiff. There was no appeal from this order.

The plaintiff next requested the defendant court reporter to release the transcript to him and offered payment for it. The court reporter informed the defendant clerk of the request. The clerk, in turn, delivered the transcript notes to the defendant chief judge of the Circuit Court, who refused to release them. The present action was taken in Superior Court to compel their release.

Upon these facts the Superior Court concluded that mandamus was proper and ordered the defendants to deliver a copy of the transcript to the plaintiff. The order was based on the court's conclusion that the Circuit Court order, which had not been appealed, should have been obeyed and that § 54-90 of the General Statutes does not "refer to or include a transcript of testimony."

The defendants' assignments of error attack several paragraphs of the finding and claim that the court erred in overruling several of their claims of law and in sustaining others. In the view we take of the appeal, it is unnecessary to discuss the suggested additions to and deletions from the finding. A decision on three issues of law controls the disposition of the case: (1) whether the Circuit Court order of November 8, 1971, bound the defendants so that they could not relitigate the issue of whether the contents of the transcript could be divulged; (2) whether the action of mandamus is proper in the circumstances of this case; and (3) whether § 54-90 of the General Statutes prohibits disclosure of the transcript in this situation.

I

It is apparent from the record that the trial court concluded that the Circuit Court order directing delivery of the transcript was binding on the defendants. Apparently the court concluded that that order was final and res judicata and expressly noted that no appeal had been taken from the order. ² The fault in this reasoning lies in the fact that there is absolutely no indication that the defendants were parties or privies to that Circuit Court proceeding nor that they received notice of the plaintiff's motion or had been afforded an opportunity to present their objections and defenses. It is not totally clear from the record what was the precise nature of the proceeding in the Circuit Court; but it is clear that the order was granted on an ex parte motion in connection with the criminal case that had resulted in acquittal and a final judgment approximately nine months earlier. The prosecuting attorney may have received notice of the pendency of the motion, but he is not a party to the present mandamus action.

"It is a settled principle that a judgment in a former action between the same parties and upon the same cause of action is conclusive upon the parties to a subsequent action as to every question which was or might have been presented or determined in the former action." State ex rel. Campo v. Osborn, 126 Conn. 214, 218, 10 A.2d 687, 688; see also State ex rel. Howard v. Hartford Street Ry. Co., 76 Conn. 174, 179, 56 A. 506; note, 21 A.L.R.3d 206. It is also true that a judgment of the Circuit Court would be binding on the parties in a subsequent action in Superior Court, although the former is a statutory court of constitutionally limited jurisdiction. Hartford National Bank & Trust Co. v. Malcolm-Smith, 129 Conn. 67, 70, 26 A.2d 234; see Walkinshaw v. O'Brien, 130 Conn. 122, 32 A.2d 547. But "[i]t is .. fundamental that in order to make a judgment res adjudicata as regards the issues determined in it the person claimed to be bound by it should have been a party to the first action in the same capacity that he is to the second. Fuller v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 68 Conn. 55, 65, 35 A. 766." Hartford National Bank & Trust Co. v. Malcolm-Smith, supra; Kaplan v. Merberg Wrecking Corporation, 152 Conn. 405, 413, 207 A.2d 732. "[D]ue process of law requires that the rights of no man shall be judicially determined without affording him a day in court and an opportunity to be heard." State ex rel. Kelman v. Schaffer, 161 Conn. 522, 526-527, 290 A.2d 327, 330; United Oil Co. v. Urban Redevelopment Commission, 158 Conn. 364, 383, 260 A.2d 596; Benz v. Walker, 154 Conn. 74, 77, 221 A.2d 841; see also Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 314, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865. Since the defendants were not parties to the Circuit Court proceeding, they cannot be held to be bound by the resulting order; that order is in effect a nullity as to the defendants. See Jensen v. Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co., 158 Conn. 251, 260, 259 A.2d 598; Rathkopf v. Pearson, 148 Conn. 260, 265, 170 A.2d 135. The Superior Court, then, erred in concluding that the defendants were precluded from litigating the issue of whether the transcript lawfully could be disclosed.

II

The defendants claim that the action of mandamus was not proper in this case because, it is urged, the right of the plaintiff to have the transcript disclosed to him was not clear and disclosure would involve an exercise of discretion by officials of the Circuit Court. It is true that mandamus lies only to enforce the performance of ministerial, as opposed to discretionary, duties by public officials. "If a public official or public agency has a duty to perform a particular act and fails in the discharge of that duty, a writ of mandamus is the proper remedy for compelling performance of the act. Where the official or agency is authorized to exercise a discretionary power, mandamus does not lie. Hannifan v. Sachs, 150 Conn. 162, 167, 187 A.2d 253 ... Relief by way of mandamus, therefore, is only available to one who has a complete and immediate right that the public act be done. Ballas v. Woodin, 155 Conn. 283, 284, 231 A.2d 273." Waterbury Teachers Assn. v. Furlong, 162 Conn. 390, 414, 294 A.2d 546, 559. The party seeking performance of the duty has the burden of establishing his clear legal right to performance. Waterbury Teachers Assn. v. Furlong, supra; Boyko v. Weiss, 147 Conn. 183, 186, 158 A.2d 253.

Here the action of mandamus was proper. Court reporters generally have the ministerial duty to furnish transcripts to parties to an action. ³ The narrow legal question is whether § 54-90 of the General Statutes, discussed at length below, creates a mandatory prohibition against disclosing transcripts in certain situations. While there may have been a legitimate doubt as to the operation and effect of § 54-90, the duty of the officials did not involve an exercise of discretion: either they were required to disclose the transcript or they were prohibited from so doing. While in a very broad sense the duty was not "clear" at the time one way or the other, one of the purposes of the action was to establish the existence of the unqualified right to performance. The court did not err, then, in concluding that the action of mandamus was proper.

III

The final decisive issue is whether the court correctly interpreted § 54-90 of the General Statutes. In pertinent part, that statute reads: "(a) Whenever in any criminal case the accused, by a final judgment, is found not guilty of the charge or the charge is dismissed, all police and court records and records of the state's or prosecuting attorney pertaining to such charge shall be immediately and automatically erased ... (e) The clerk of the court or chief clerk of the circuit court, as the case may be, shall not disclose to anyone information pertaining to any charge erased under any provision of this section." The trial court concluded that these provisions did not impose on the defendant officials the duty not to disclose a transcript of testimony of proceedings held pursuant to charges of which the plaintiff was ac-acquitted. The plaintiff also argues that even if transcripts are included within the words of the statute, a party should be able to waive his "right" to nondisclosure.

Well-established principles of statutory construction govern the interpretation of § 54-90. First, where the words of a statute are unambiguous, " '[i]t is the expressed intent of the legislature which controls, and that intent is to be found in the meaning...