Payne v. Fairfield Hills Hosp.

• Decision Date: 24 July 1990
• Docket Number: No. 13875,13875
• Citation: 215 Conn. 675,578 A.2d 1025
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: James PAYNE v. FAIRFIELD HILLS HOSPITAL et al.

Page 1025

578 A.2d 1025

215 Conn. 675

James PAYNE v. FAIRFIELD HILLS HOSPITAL et al.

No. 13875.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 31, 1990.

Decided July 24, 1990.

Salvatore C. DePiano, with whom was Edward F. Czepiga II, for appellant (plaintiff).

Carolyn K. Querijero, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on the brief, were Clarine Nardi Riddle, Atty. Gen., and Richard J. Lynch and Andrea B. Gaines, for appellees (named defendant et al.).

Mary H. Lesser, Deputy Asst. State's Atty., for appellee (defendant Mary M. Galvin).

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

PETERS, Chief Justice.

The sole issue in this appeal is the constitutionality of the 1985 statute creating the psychiatric security review board (PSRB), an agency charged with monitoring the mental condition of persons acquitted of criminal charges by reason of mental disease or defect, with respect to a pre-1985 acquittee. The plaintiff, James Payne, acquitted of murder by reason of mental disease or defect and confined to a mental hospital in 1980, sought to enjoin the PSRB from exercising jurisdiction over him on the ground that the statute creating the board is a "quasi-criminal" statute that violates the ex post facto prohibition in article one, § 10 of the United States constitution. ¹ The trial court rendered a judgment denying the plaintiff's application for temporary and permanent injunctive relief. This court transferred here, in accordance with Practice Book § 4023, the plaintiff's appeal from this judgment. We now affirm.

The material facts are not in dispute. The plaintiff was found not guilty of murder by reason of mental disease or defect on February 1, 1980. In April, 1980, following an initial confinement for psychiatric evaluation, the trial court ordered the plaintiff to be confined to Fairfield Hills Hospital pursuant to General Statutes § 53a-47 for a period not to exceed twenty-five years.

In April, 1989, the state's attorney for the judicial district in which the plaintiff had been tried requested that the PSRB, established in 1985 by General Statutes § 17-257b, transfer the plaintiff from Fairfield Hills Hospital to another facility. She cited as grounds for her request the failure of Fairfield Hills Hospital properly to monitor the plaintiff, to file timely reports concerning the plaintiff, and to follow suggestions made by the PSRB. In response to her motion, the executive director of the PSRB ordered an independent psychiatric examination of the plaintiff to evaluate his current mental status, psychiatric diagnosis, recommended treatment and level of supervision, and his potential dangerousness.

The plaintiff refused to submit to the PSRB's order. Rather, on May 15, 1989, he filed a verified complaint in the Superior Court contesting the PSRB's jurisdiction over him and seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief against the state's attorney, the PSRB, and Fairfield Hills Hospital. He challenged the statutory propriety and constitutionality of the actions of the PSRB regarding his confinement, alleging that the actions constituted a deprivation of his rights to due process of law and to the equal protection of the laws. ²

The defendants moved to dismiss the action on the ground that the plaintiff's failure to exhaust available administrative remedies deprived the court of subject matter jurisdiction. At a subsequent hearing, the parties stipulated to the material facts, requested the court to take judicial notice of the controlling law at the various times at issue, and agreed to join all issues for resolution at one time.

The trial court denied the motion to dismiss, ruling that the plaintiff was not required to submit to the jurisdiction of the PSRB and thus exhaust his administrative remedies before bringing an independent action to challenge the constitutional validity of the PSRB's jurisdiction over him. On the merits, the court held that the challenged statutory provisions, because they are purely procedural in character, do not constitute an ex post facto law within the meaning of the constitutional prohibition. The court further concluded that the statute contemplated a continuing and significant role for the state's attorney in monitoring the mental condition of acquittees, as exercised by the state's attorney in this case.

The plaintiff's appeal raises three issues. Did the trial court correctly rule that: (1) the plaintiff was not required to exhaust administrative remedies before instituting his lawsuit; (2) the act did not violate the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws; and (3) the act was properly invoked, on its own terms, to review the plaintiff's psychiatric status? We affirm each of the rulings of the trial court.

I

Because the doctrine requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies implicates subject matter jurisdiction, we first address whether that doctrine requires dismissal of the plaintiff's claims. Concerned Citizens of Sterling v. Sterling, 204 Conn. 551, 556-57, 529 A.2d 666 (1987). The doctrine of exhaustion fosters the orderly processes of administrative adjudication and judicial review by providing the reviewing court with the benefit of the agency's findings and conclusions. Id., at 557, 529 A.2d 666. Accordingly, a party who has a statutory right of appeal from a decision of an administrative agency may not bring an independent action to test the very issues that the statutory appeal was designed to test. Pet v. Department of Health Services, 207 Conn. 346, 353, 542 A.2d 672 (1988); Carpenter v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 176 Conn. 581, 598, 409 A.2d 1029 (1979). Even a claim that an administrative agency has exceeded its statutory authority or jurisdiction may be the subject of an administrative appeal. Cannata v. Department of Environmental Protection, 215 Conn. 616, 577 A.2d 1017 (1990); Greater Bridgeport Transit District v. Local Union 1336, 211 Conn. 436, 439, 559 A.2d 1113 (1989).

The doctrine of exhaustion is nevertheless subject to certain narrowly circumscribed but well recognized exceptions. One such exception involves a challenge to the constitutionality of the statute or regulation under which an agency operates, rather than to the actions of the board or agency. LaCroix v. Board of Education, 199 Conn. 70, 79 n. 7, 505 A.2d 1233 (1986); Friedson v. Westport, 181 Conn. 230, 233 435 A.2d 17 (1980). Although the mere allegation of a constitutional violation will not necessarily excuse a plaintiff's failure to exhaust available administrative remedies; Pet v. Department of Health Services, supra, 207 Conn. at 354-56, 542 A.2d 672; Sullivan v. State, 189 Conn. 550, 553-54, 457 A.2d 304 (1983); we have permitted, under special circumstances, a collateral constitutional challenge to the action of an administrative agency even in the absence of a direct appeal. LaCroix v. Board of Education, supra, 199 Conn. at 80, 505 A.2d 1233; Connecticut Light & Power Co. v. Norwalk, 179 Conn. 111, 117, 425 A.2d 576 (1979); see also Greater Bridgeport Transit District v. Local Union 1336, supra, 211 Conn. at 440 n. 2, 559 A.2d 1113. ³

In the present case, the plaintiff concedes that General Statutes § 17-257w(c) ⁴ expressly subjects all acquittees in his situation to the jurisdiction of the PSRB. He has alleged, however, that the statute cannot be applied to him because it imposes conditions on his confinement more onerous than those in effect at the time of his trial and is thus a violation of the federal constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws. This is therefore not a case in which an administrative agency should be called upon to determine particular facts or to exercise its discretion. See McKart v. United States, 395 U.S. 185, 193-95, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 1662-63, 23 L.Ed.2d 194 (1969); Finnerty v. Cowen, 508 F.2d 979, 982 (2d Cir.1974). The plaintiff's claim is in effect a plenary challenge to the constitutionality of the statute as applied to all acquittees in the plaintiff's position. He asserts that it is constitutionally inappropriate for the PSRB to exercise any role in his continued psychiatric supervision.

The plaintiff's challenge to the jurisdiction of the PSRB is readily distinguishable from the somewhat similar claim that we recently rejected in Cannata v. Department of Environmental Protection, supra. In Cannata, the plaintiffs argued that they should not be compelled to submit to the jurisdiction of the department of environmental protection for exhaustion of administrative remedies because their proposed use of land did not constitute an obstruction or encroachment within the meaning of the statute on which such jurisdiction would depend. We concluded, to the contrary, that the agency possessed technical expertise in evaluating particular land uses, and that its determinations would provide the necessary factual record for any subsequent judicial review. We noted, in addition, that the plaintiffs in Cannata had failed to assert any constitutional claims on appeal.

In the present case, in contrast, the plaintiff does not dispute the statutory authority of the PSRB to assume jurisdiction over him; rather, he asserts that the statute itself is unconstitutional as applied to him. The PSRB's expertise in making factual determinations regarding the mental condition of acquittees is therefore of no use in evaluating the plaintiff's legal claim. In view of the substantial constitutional question raised by this claim, the trial court properly concluded that it possessed jurisdiction to entertain such a challenge without first requiring the plaintiff to pursue an administrative remedy. See LaCroix v. Board of Education, supra.

II

The plaintiff acquittee asserts that two aspects of the act establishing the PSRB are unconstitutional as applied to him: first, the act shifts to the acquittee the burden of proving that he is not mentally ill or dangerous in order to secure his discharge; General Statutes §...