Hultman v. Blumenthal1/15/2002
The plaintiffs, Barry Hultman and his mother, Dorothy Hultman, appeal from the judgment rendered in favor of the defendant, Richard Blumenthal, after the trial court granted the defendant's motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' cause of action for emotional distress arising from the defendant's allegedly defamatory statements about the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs claim that the court improperly granted the motion, which was based on the lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The issue raised in the motion was whether the doctrine of sovereign immunity or the statutory immunity provided by General Statutes § 4-165 is a jurisdictional bar to the maintenance of the plaintiffs' action. We conclude, as did the trial court, that the doctrine of sovereign immunity does apply and thereby deprives the court of subject matter jurisdiction.
The plaintiffs' complaint is in four counts. The first and second counts allege that the defendant's publication of a news release on the state of Connecticut attorney general's Internet web site every day during the calendar year 1999 was defamatory as to the plaintiffs. The third and fourth counts allege that the defendant's statement to a Hartford Courant newspaper reporter on or about December 15, 1998, was defamatory as to the plaintiffs.
Blumenthal is not described in the complaint as the attorney general of the state of Connecticut, but the defendant's brief describes the defendant as the attorney general. The statements attributed to him are alleged to have been published on the attorney general's web site, and the summons describes him as the attorney general.
The determination of whether subject matter jurisdiction exists is a question of law and, thus, our review is plenary. Lawrence Brunoli, Inc. v. Branford, 247 Conn. 407, 410, 722 A.2d 271 (1999); SLI International Corp. v. Crystal, 236 Conn. 156, 163-64, 671 A.2d 813 (1996). If the motion is accompanied by supporting affidavits containing facts, as is the case here, we review the case by looking at the content of the affidavits, as well as the complaint, to determine the jurisdictional issue, and we need not conclusively presume the validity of the allegations of the complaint. Shay v. Rossi, 253 Conn. 134, 140, 749 A.2d 1147 (2000); Barde v. Board of Trustees, 207 Conn. 59, 62, 539 A.2d 1000 (1988); see also Practice Book § 10-31.
The judgment of dismissal in this case was based on the inferences to be drawn from the plaintiffs' complaint, the additional evidence submitted by the defendant in this action, and the facts found in an administrative appeal entitled Hultman v. Dept. of Social Services, 47 Conn. Sup. 228, A.2d (2000). In that case, the plaintiffs appealed to the trial court from an order of the department of social services (department) suspending them from the medicaid program and ordering restitution by the plaintiffs to the department of overpayments received by them. The court dismissed that appeal, and the plaintiffs did not appeal from that dismissal.
The first question to be resolved is whether, on the basis of the legal inferences to be drawn from the complaint, the facts found in Hultman v. Dept. of Social Services, supra, 47 Conn. Sup. 228, and the other evidence, the defendant is barred from using a defense of sovereign immunity.
The following procedural history and the facts that were before the trial court are relevant to our resolution of the plaintiffs' appeal. From October 1, 1993, through September 30, 1995, Countryside Manor, Inc. (Countryside), was a long-term health care facility in Bristol that furnished goods and services to medicaid recipients. During that period, Dorothy Hultman was president of Countrysi
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