Summary
In Buoanno v. Merly, 4 Conn. App. 148 (1985), the Court was concerned with the eligibility of a plaintiff to take a promotional examination where she had been employed in a certain capacity for over nine years and then voluntarily left that employment.
Summary of this case from Donegan v. SimoneOpinion
(2504)
There is no provision in the city of Bridgeport charter restricting the one year employment requirement for taking the advancement examination the plaintiff sought to take here to the year next preceding the eligibility date of that examination. The trial court, therefore, correctly concluded that the plaintiff, a city employee between 1963 and 1972 who in 1981 had returned to city service less than one year before the eligibility date, was eligible to take the exam.
Submitted on briefs March 29, 1985
Decision released May 28, 1985
Action for an injunction to compel the defendants to declare the plaintiff eligible to take a certain city employee promotional exam, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Fairfield and tried to the court, Ryan, J.; judgment for the plaintiff, from which the defendants appealed to this court. No error.
Thomas H. Jackson, deputy city attorney, and Barbara Brazzel-Massaro, assistant city attorney, filed a brief for the appellants (defendants).
Thomas W. Bucci filed a brief for the appellee (plaintiff).
This is an appeal by the defendants, members of the Bridgeport civil service commission, from an order of the trial court compelling the defendants to declare the plaintiff eligible to take a promotional examination.
The plaintiff had been employed by the city of Bridgeport in the permanent classification of typist I from April 29, 1963, until October 3, 1972, at which time she voluntarily left her employment. She returned to work in the same classification on August 30, 1981, and so remained at least until August 17, 1983, the date of the judgment being appealed. On December 2, 1982, the civil service commission announced a promotional examination for the position of typist II, open only to those employees of the city who had "occupied with tenure of office a position in the clerical service for not less than one year as of July 6, 1982."
Section 9 of Bridgeport's city charter states in part that promotional tests shall not be available to those who have "served less than one year in a lower grade." The defendants urge that we interpret this provision to require that the one year of service be the one year immediately preceding the eligibility date and that such service be continuous and uninterrupted. That requirement is not expressed, however, in the charter language.
A municipal charter is a legislative enactment and in its interpretation the rules of statutory construction are ordinarily applied. Arminio v. Butler, 183 Conn. 211, 217, 440 A.2d 757 (1981). The intention of the legislative body is found in the words employed in the charter provisions, and these words are given their plain and obvious meaning. Id.; see Kusterer v. Sheehy, 2 Conn. App. 712, 714, 483 A.2d 1105 (1984). Where the language used is unambiguous, "a court cannot arbitrarily add to or subtract from the words employed." Arminio v. Butler, supra, 213, quoting 2 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations (3d Ed. Rev.) 9.22.
We conclude that the trial court correctly held that the plaintiff had occupied the position in question for not less than one year as of July 6, 1982.