Vincenzo v. Warden

• Decision Date: 12 November 1991
• Docket Number: No. 9593,9593
• Citation: 599 A.2d 31,26 Conn.App. 132
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: Dominic VINCENZO v. WARDEN, State Prison.

Page 31

599 A.2d 31

26 Conn.App. 132

Dominic VINCENZO v. WARDEN, State Prison.

No. 9593.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued Sept. 19, 1991.

Decided Nov. 12, 1991.

David L. Kent, for appellant (petitioner).

L.D. McCallum, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on the brief, was Richard Blumenthal, Atty. Gen., for appellee (respondent).

Before DUPONT, C.J., and NORCOTT and HEIMAN, JJ.

NORCOTT, Judge.

This is an appeal from the dismissal of a habeas corpus petition that requires this court to explore the outer limits of jurisdiction relative to the ephemeral and complex boundaries of the Great Writ. ¹

The petitioner claims that the habeas court improperly dismissed his petition because it failed to find that the state board of parole is subject to the rule-making provisions of the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act (UAPA), General Statutes § 4-166 et seq. The habeas court dismissed the petition upon determining that the petitioner's claimed right to parole was not an interest sufficient to give rise to habeas relief. While the petitioner urges that we reach the merits of his claim, at oral argument we questioned counsel about the issue of the habeas court's jurisdiction over the subject matter. We must resolve this issue before reaching the merits of this appeal. This court has jurisdiction to determine whether a trial court had jurisdiction. Drake v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 14 Conn.App. 583, 541 A.2d 1251 (1988) (en banc). Because we conclude that no liberty interest was implicated by the petitioner's claim, the habeas court lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter. That court, therefore, properly dismissed the petition.

The pertinent facts are undisputed. The petitioner was convicted of murder in 1974 and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of twenty years to life. In 1977, he was sentenced to a consecutive term of one to four years for conspiring to bring unauthorized items into a penal institution. On August 25, 1986, the parole board conducted a hearing to determine whether the petitioner should be paroled to the consecutive sentence. At the time of the hearing, the board was operating under its own procedures and regulations, which had not been submitted to the state attorney general and the legislature for approval prior to implementation. General Statutes §§ 4-169 and 4-170. The board denied the petitioner release and gave him written notice of the reasons for its decision. The petitioner then sought a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that his confinement is illegal because the board's regulations do not conform to the requirements for rule-making that it must follow as a state agency pursuant to the UAPA. After a trial to the court on March 27, 1989, the petition was dismissed on May 11, 1990. This appeal followed.

The issue presented to this court requires us to determine whether a prisoner's challenge to the parole board's failure to adopt regulations pursuant to the UAPA constitutes a cognizable claim of illegal detention that gives the habeas court jurisdiction over the subject matter. Jurisdiction over the subject matter is the court's power to hear and decide cases of the general class to which the proceedings at issue belong. Gurliacci v. Mayer, 218 Conn. 531, 542, 590 A.2d 914 (1991); LeConche v. Elligers, 215 Conn. 701, 709, 579 A.2d 1 (1990); Castro v. Viera, 207 Conn. 420, 427, 541 A.2d 1216 (1988); Shea v. First Federal Savings & Loan Assn. of New Haven, 184 Conn. 285, 288, 439 A.2d 997 (1981). A court has subject matter jurisdiction if it has the authority to hear a particular type of legal controversy. This jurisdiction relates to the court's competency to exercise power. Castro v. Viera, supra; State v. Malkowski, 189 Conn. 101, 105-106, 454 A.2d 275 (1983); Monroe v. Monroe, 177 Conn. 173, 185, 413 A.2d 819, appeal dismissed, 444 U.S. 801, 100 S.Ct. 20, 62 L.Ed.2d 14 (1979).

Unlike jurisdiction over the person, subject matter jurisdiction cannot be created through consent or waiver. Castro v. Viera, supra, 207 Conn. at 429-30, 541 A.2d 1216; United States Trust Co. v. Bohart, 197 Conn. 34, 39, 495 A.2d 1034 (1985); Hayes v. Beresford, 184 Conn. 558, 562, 440 A.2d 224 (1981); State v. Jones, 166 Conn. 620, 627, 353 A.2d 764 (1974); Reed v. Reincke, 155 Conn. 591, 598, 236 A.2d 909 (1967). Once the question of lack of jurisdiction of a court is raised, " '[it] must be disposed of no matter in what form it is presented.' " Carten v. Carten, 153 Conn. 603, 610, 219 A.2d 711 (1966); Castro v. Viera, supra, 207 Conn. at 429, 541 A.2d 1216; Monroe v. Monroe, supra, 177 Conn. at 177, 413 A.2d 819; Browning v. Steers, 162 Conn. 623, 625, 295 A.2d 544 (1972). The court must "fully resolve it before proceeding further with the case." Castro v. Viera, supra, quoting Valley Cable Vision, Inc. v. Public Utilities Commission, 175 Conn. 30, 32, 392 A.2d 485 (1978); Gurliacci v. Mayer, supra, 218 Conn. at 545, 590 A.2d 914; Statewide Grievance Committee v. Rozbicki, 211 Conn. 232, 245, 558 A.2d 986 (1989); Gimbel v. Gimbel, 147 Conn. 561, 566, 163 A.2d 451 (1960). Whenever a court finds that it has no jurisdiction, it must dismiss the case, without regard to previous rulings. Pet v. Department of Health Services, 207 Conn. 346, 351, 542 A.2d 672 (1988); Cahill v. Board of Education, 198 Conn. 229, 238, 502 A.2d 410 (1985); Chzrislonk v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., 101 Conn. 356, 358, 125 A. 874 (1924).

We begin by taking note of the basic purpose underlying what is one of the most extraordinary and unique legal remedies "in the procedural armory of our law." Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 443, 512, 73 S.Ct. 397, 448, 97 L.Ed. 469 (1953). Although it is true that the United States Supreme Court "has not 'always followed an unwavering line in its conclusions as to the availability of The Great Writ' "; McCleskey v. Zant, --- U.S. ----, ----, 111 S.Ct. 1454, 1467, 113 L.Ed.2d 517 (1991), quoting Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 411-12, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963); from the time the writ originated in seventeenth century England, its central purpose has been to test the legality of detention. English legislation and common law have been recognized by the United States Supreme Court as authoritative guides in applying the writ in the federal courts. McNally v. Hill, 293 U.S. 131, 136-37, 55 S.Ct. 24, 26, 79 L.Ed. 238 (1934), overruled on other grounds, Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54, 88 S.Ct. 1549, 20 L.Ed.2d 426 (1968). ²

In applying federal habeas statutes, ³ the United States Supreme Court has said that "[t]he purpose of the proceeding defined by the statute was to inquire into the legality of the detention.... There is no warrant in either the statute or the writ for its use to invoke judicial determination of questions which could not affect the lawfulness of the custody and detention, and no suggestion of such a use has been found in the commentaries on the English common law." McNally v. Hill, supra; see also Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 136, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 1576, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982) (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (relief available to a prisoner only if he is held in custody in violation of the constitution or laws or treaties of the United States); Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 484, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 1833, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973) ("[i]t is clear, not only from the language of [the federal habeas statutes], but also from the common-law history of the writ, that the essence of habeas corpus is an attack by a person in custody upon the legality of that custody"); Fay v. Noia, supra, 372 U.S. at 402, 83 S.Ct. at 829 (writ's "root principle is that in a civilized society, government must always be accountable to the judiciary for a man's imprisonment: if the imprisonment cannot be shown to conform with the fundamental requirements of law, the individual is entitled to his immediate release"); H. Hart and H. Wechsler, The Federal Courts and the Federal System (3d Ed.) 1468 ("Great Writ always serves the function of precipitating a judicial inquiry into a claim of illegality in the petitioner's detention for the purpose of commanding his release, or other appropriate disposition."); P. Bator, "Finality in Criminal Law and Federal Habeas Corpus for State Prisoners," 76 Harv.L.Rev. 441, 444-45 (1963) ("[i]ts function, in the great phrase, is to test 'the legality of the detention of one in the custody of another' "); accord Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 98 n. 12, 101 S.Ct. 411, 417 n. 12, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980).

The history of our own jurisprudence is wholly in accord with these principles. "Habeas corpus provides a special and extraordinary legal remedy for illegal detention." Reed v. Reincke, 155 Conn. 591, 594, 236 A.2d 909 (1967); McClain v. Robinson, 189 Conn. 663, 668, 457 A.2d 1072 (1983); In re Juvenile Appeal (Docket No. 9208), 184 Conn. 157, 167, 439 A.2d 958 (1981); Mayock v. Superintendent, 154 Conn. 704, 705, 224 A.2d 544 (1966) (per curiam); Wojculewicz v. Cummings, 143 Conn. 624, 627, 124 A.2d 886 (1956); Bissing v. Turkington, 113 Conn. 737, 740, 157 A. 226 (1931). The deprivation of legal rights is essential before the writ may be issued. McPheters v. Pollard, 146 Conn. 509, 510, 152 A.2d 632 (1959). " 'Questions which do not concern the lawfulness of the detention cannot properly be reviewed on habeas corpus.' " Sanchez v. Warden, 214 Conn. 23, 33, 570 A.2d 673 (1990), quoting Flaherty v. Warden, 155 Conn. 36, 40, 229 A.2d 362 (1967). When a habeas petition is properly before a court, the remedies it may award depend on the constitutional rights being vindicated. Gaines v. Manson, 194 Conn. 510, 516, 481 A.2d 1084 (1984). Further, any remedy must be commensurate with the scope of the constitutional violations that have been established. ⁴ Id., at 528, 481 A.2d 1084.

The gravamen of the petitioner's claim is that his confinement is illegal because the parole board operates in violation of the UAPA's rule-making provisions. For this type of...