Connecticut Independent Utility Workers, Local 12924 v. Department of Public Utility Control, 312 Conn. 452

Summary

The Connecticut Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs lacked standing to appeal the Department of Public Utility Control's denial of their petition for a declaratory ruling concerning participant status and regulations in uncontested agency proceedings. The court concluded that the complaint did not allege facts establishing a specific, personal, and legal interest or a resulting injury distinct from that of the general public. The judgment was reversed, and the case was remanded with direction to dismiss the administrative appeal.

Holdings

1. The plaintiffs' complaint failed to plead facts showing a specific, personal, and legal interest distinct from that of the general public or an injury specially affecting such an interest; therefore, the plaintiffs were not classically aggrieved and the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction.
2. General Statutes § 4-176 gives any person a broad right to petition an agency for a declaratory ruling, but that right does not confer an automatic right to appeal under § 4-183; an appellant must independently establish aggrievement.
3. A challenge to an agency's failure to adopt procedurally required regulations may be maintained only upon a showing that the agency's failure caused some personal prejudice to the challenger; the plaintiffs failed to plead such prejudice.
4. Memoranda of law and exhibits cannot cure a complaint's failure to plead the jurisdictional facts necessary to establish aggrievement, although an administrative record may provide proof of facts adequately alleged.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the plaintiffs pleaded sufficient facts to establish classical aggrievement and standing to appeal the department's denial of their petition for a declaratory ruling.
2. Whether a person's statutory right to petition an agency for a declaratory ruling under General Statutes § 4-176 creates an automatic right to appeal the agency's ruling under General Statutes § 4-183.
3. Whether allegations concerning the plaintiffs' treatment as participants in an earlier agency investigation, or legal assertions that the agency acted unlawfully, cured the complaint's failure to plead a specific personal and legal interest.
4. Whether the plaintiffs could challenge the department's alleged failure to promulgate procedural regulations without pleading and proving personal prejudice.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded