AGO 1990-040.

• Court: Connecticut

Connecticut Attorney General Opinions 1990. AGO 1990-040. 1990Opinion No. 1990-040Honorable Betty L. TiantiCommissionerDepartment of Labor200 Folly Brook BoulevardWethersfield, CT 06109Dear Commissioner Tianti: In your letter dated June 1, 1990, you requested the opinion of this office as to whether any person designated by you as a serving officer to collect money owed the Unemployment Compensation Fund would be entitled to a statutory right of indemnification. Specifically you inquire as to whether there is a right to indemnification from financial loss and expense from the state for any negligence or civil rights violations arising from such a person's actions while functioning as a serving officer. Information subsequently provided by your office has confirmed that your request pertains to those designated as serving officers who are neither sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables nor classified Labor Department employees.1 Your office has also provided factual information as to the working relationship between you and those whom you designate. We conclude that a person whom you designate as a serving officer is not entitled to a statutory right of indemnification. Conn. Gen. Stat. e§31-266 authorizes you to collect money owed to the Fund by any means provided for the collection of any tax owed the state including those provided by e 12-35. 1989 Conn. Pub. Acts 89-157 amended e 12-35 to authorize you to designate someone who is neither a Labor Department employee nor a sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable to serve warrants to collect unemployment compensation taxes. It did so by expanding the definition of the term "serving officer" to include "any person so designated by the Commissioner of Labor." Issues concerning who qualifies for both immunity from personal liability and indemnification are framed by statutory language which refers to the term "state officer or employee." Therefore, this language must be examined. Conn. Gen. Stat. e§4-165 affords immunity by providing that "[n]o state officer or employee shall be personally liable for damage or injury, not wanton, reckless or malicious, caused in the discharge of his duties or within the scope of his employment." Conn. Gen. Stat. e§5-141d(a) offers additional protection in declaring that [t]he state shall save harmless and indemnify any state officer or employee, as defined in section 4-141...from financial loss and expense arising out of any claim, demand, suit or judgment by reason of his alleged negligence or alleged deprivation of any person's civil rights or other act or omission resulting in damage or injury, if the officer, employee or member is found to have been acting in the discharge of his duties or within the scope of his employment and such act or omission is found not to have been wanton, reckless or malicious. Both of these statutes refer to the statutory definition of "state officer or employee" contained at e 4-141. This statute defines the term "state officers and employees" as "includ[ing] every person elected or appointed to or employed in any office, position or post in the state government, whatever his title, classification or function and whether he serves with or without remuneration or compensation...." The nature of your relationship with those designated provides insight into whether they are "state officers or employees." Those designated perform their services on an indefinite basis as opposed to for a period certain. Assignments to collect taxes are made by agreement. You may choose not to make a particular assignment or to stop making any future assignments to any such person whenever you choose. You may terminate the relationship for any reason or no reason simply by making no further assignments. Persons designated have no right to perform services...