United States Second Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging that the state unlawfully established an involuntary conservatorship over plaintiff, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed in part where the judge responsible for the conservatorship did not act in the clear absence of subject matter jurisdiction, and he was not aware of the defects in personal jurisdiction, making judicial immunity appropriate. However, as to the issue of quasi-judicial immunity under Connecticut law, the court certified the following question to the Connecticut Supreme Court: What is the role of conservators, court-appointed attorneys for conservatees, and nursing homes in the Connecticut probate court system, in light of the six factors for determining quasi-judicial immunity outlined in Cleavinger v. Saxner, 474 U.S. 193, 201-02 (1985)?

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/27/2009
• Published 10/27/2009

Judges

• STRAUB, Circuit Judge:, Before:  JACOBS, Chief Judge, STRAUB and HALL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Sally R. Zanger, Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Inc., Middletown, CT, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Gregory T. D'Auria, Associate Attorney General for the State of Connecticut (Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General, Jane R. Rosenberg, Assistant Attorney General, Clare Kindall, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), Hartford, CT, for Defendants-Appellees M. Jodi Rell, Maggie Ewald, and Thomas P. Brunnock., Richard A. Roberts (Nadine M. Pare, James R. Fiore, of counsel), Nuzzo & Roberts L.L.C., Cheshire, CT, for Defendant-Appellee Kathleen Donovan., Louis B. Blumenfeld (Lorinda S. Coon, of counsel), Cooney, Scully and Dowling, Hartford, CT, for Defendant-Appellee Jonathan Newman., Jeffrey R. Babbin, Wiggin and Dana, LLP, New Haven, CT, for Defendant-Appellee Grove Manor Nursing Home, Inc.