Section 31-51q

Citation: Section 31-51q
Parent Document: Cotto v. United Technologies Corp., 251 Conn. 1 (1999)
Jurisdiction: Connecticut (state)
Effective Date: 1999-10-12
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/7898264/cotto-v-united-technologies-corp/ ↗

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I acknowledge that there is language in the statute that could be interpreted to point to a broader scope of the statute than I have identified. For example, § 31-51q specifically includes “the state and any instrumentality or political subdivision thereof’ within the meaning of the term “any employer.” That provision, however, is more plausibly read as a specific recognition that, at the least, the state and its subdivisions stand on the same footing as a private employer, and are therefore subject to the same statutory damages action as a private employer, rather than an indication of a legislative intent that the statute reaches private conduct on private premises. Without that language, for example, an employee bringing an action under § 31-51q for having been disciplined or discharged by the state for his or her exercise of the specified constitutional rights, might have been met with the arguments that: (1) “any employer” does not include the state, on the basis of an assertion that statutes imposing liabilities on the state must do so with specificity; see, e.g., Struckman v. Burns, 205 Conn. 542, 558, 534 A.2d 888 (1987) (state not required to pay prejudgment interest where statute does not expressly waive sovereign immunity); and (2) in such a case, therefore, the employee’s remedies would be an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, or an attempt to fashion a cognizable action directly under the state constitution. Compare Kelley Property Development, Inc. v. Lebanon, 226 Conn. 314, 316, 627 A.2d 909 (1993), with Binette v. Sabo, 244 Conn. 23, 25-26, 710 A.2d 688 (1998). With that language, however, § 31-51q makes clear that those arguments would be without merit.

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