Court Opinion

ID: 9702109
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:54:46.226233+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:32.636533
License: Public Domain

BERDON, J.,
concurring and dissenting. I disagree with part IV of the majority opinion,1 which states that *271by adopting General Statutes § 4-160, the legislature did not intend to enhance the plaintiffs substantive rights against the state. I conclude, on the basis of the plain language of § 4-160, its legislative history, several recent decisions of this court, and the construction of similar statutes by other jurisdictions and the United States Supreme Court, that the state stands in the shoes of a private person, for liability purposes, when the state claims commissioner, pursuant to § 4-160, finds that it is just and equitable to authorize a claimant to bring an action against the state. In other words, if a private person would be liable for the claim, then the state would also be liable. Before setting forth my analysis, it is helpful to put this issue in its historical setting.
Historically, the legislature of this state would grant compensation, through the enactment of special acts, to citizens who were injured or who had other claims against the state. Indeed, prior to 1959, before the legislature created the office of the claims commission, the General Assembly in the first instance considered what action, if any, was appropriate on claims made against the state.2 That is, the General Assembly either authorized payment of a claim against the state,3 or authorized an action to be brought against the state in court.4 The *272standard for the recompense was whether justice required the state to pay for an injury it had caused. It is important to note that the predicate was not that the state was hable for such compensation, but, rather, that justice and equity required that the state make the payment or that the state respond to an action as if it were a private person. Indeed, in a special act that reflects facts that are strikingly similar to the present case, the legislature, in 1959, authorized a compensatory payment to a state employee because he was relieved of his duties and subsequently reinstated at a lower salary.5
It reached a point where the number of claims submitted to the legislature became a major burden and this interfered with the more important function of enacting *273general legislation.6 When legislation was proposed by the legislative council7 to establish a claims commission in order to relieve the General Assembly of a major portion of this burden, its director, George Oberst, explained the need to establish this alternative procedure for the processing of claims in order to ensure that “equity and justice” is done.8 A statutory procedure for the disposition of claims against the state, to be administered by a claims commission, was adopted by the enactment of Public Acts 1959, No. 685. Subsequently, in 1975, the legislature substituted a claims commissioner (commissioner) for the claims commission. See Public Acts 1975, No. 75-605. Therefore, the commissioner is in reality the conscience of the state, assuming in part the prior role of the legislature to ensure that justice and equity is done. It is the commissioner who now determines what claims should be *274paid,9 what claims should be referred to the legislature for payment,10 or which claimants should be authorized to institute an action against the state.11
*275The basis for the plaintiffs claim that he filed with the commissioner, and upon which he was authorized to bring an action, can be crystallized as breach of contract and promissory estoppel.12 The state argued before the commissioner that Special Acts 1991, No. 91-8, the act that validated the plaintiffs untimely notice of claim, was unconstitutional and beyond the *276commissioner’s jurisdiction. Because of this argument, the commissioner, instead of adjudicating the claim himself pursuant to General Statutes § 4-158 or making a recommendation to the legislature of an amount for payment pursuant to General Statutes § 4-159, authorized the plaintiff to institute this action pursuant to § 4-160.
The trial court, finding that Pineman v. Oechslin, 195 Conn. 405, 488 A.2d 803 (1985),13 was controlling, rejected the plaintiffs breach of contract claim against the state. Also, the trial court, in finding that the requirements to hold a public agency responsible based upon promissory estoppel were not met; see Kimberly-Clark Corp. v. Dubno, 204 Conn. 137, 148, 527 A.2d 679 (1987);14 Pineman v. Oechslin, supra, 415;15 also *277rejected that claim. Neither the trial court nor this court are correct in relying on Pineman and Kimberly-Clark Corp., because those cases were direct actions against the state and are not relevant to the standards that must be applied once an action has been authorized by the commissioner.16 Indeed, the majority’s entire analysis is predicated on Pineman17 and Kimberly-Clark Corp.,18 without any recognition that in neither of those cases did the commissioner authorize an action against the state pursuant to § 4-160.
This present action against the state must be viewed through the lens of § 4-160,19 upon which the commissioner predicated his order. Our rules of statutory construction are clear. If words of a statute are clear, the duty of a reviewing court is to apply the legislature’s directive. “[T]he meaning of [a] statute must, in the first instance, be sought in the language in which the act is framed .... If the language of the statute is clear, it is assumed that the words themselves express the intent of the legislature .... Where [a] statute presents no ambiguity, we need look no further than the words themselves which we assume express the intention of the legislature.” (Citations omitted; internal quotation *278marks omitted.) White v. Burns, 213 Conn. 307, 311, 567 A.2d 1195 (1990).
The clear words of § 4-160 provide that once an action is authorized by the commissioner, the liability of the state is to be determined as if the action were against a private person — if a private defendant would be liable, then so would the state. The plain words of § 4-160, as indicated in the following italicized portions of the statute, demonstrate this point. Subsection (a) provides: “When the Claims Commissioner deems it just and equitable, he may authorize suit against the state on any claim which, in his opinion, presents an issue of law or fact under which the state, were it a private person, could be liable.” (Emphasis added.) Subsection (b) provides: “In each action authorized by the Claims Commissioner pursuant to subsection (a) of this section or by the General Assembly pursuant to section 4-159, the claimant shall allege such authorization and the date on which it was granted. The state waives its immunity from liability and from suit in each such action and waives all defenses which might arise from the eleemosynary or governmental nature of the activity complained of. The rights and liability of the state in each such action shall be coextensive with and shall equal the rights and liability of private persons in like circumstances.” (Emphasis added.) The identical “were it a private person” standard is found in the last sentence of § 4-159, which applies to the General Assembly when it is deciding whether to grant a claimant permission to bring an action against the state. If the legislature did not make it clear in subsection (a) of § 4-160 that the liability of the state, once the commissioner deemed “it just and equitable,” was to be coextensive with that of a private person, it was made crystal clear in subsection (b) of that statute, which provides, in pertinent part, that the “liability of the state . . . shall be coextensive with and shall equal the . . . lia*279bility of private persons in like circumstances.” “Coextensive” is defined as “having the same scope or boundaries . . . .” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary; see also General Statutes § 1-1 (a) (“[i]n the construction of the statutes, words and phrases shall be construed according to the commonly approved usage of the language”).
The majority states that the “sole purpose of § 4-160 . . . is to remove the bar of sovereign immunity . . . .” This, however, is accomplished by the second sentence in § 4-160 (b), which waives such defenses on the part of the state. Under the majority’s reading of the statute, there would be no purpose for the language in subsection (a) of § 4-160, which sets forth the “were it a private person, could be liable” standard, or, more importantly, for the third sentence in subsection (b), which provides that the “liability of the state in each such action shall be coextensive with and shall equal the . . . liability of private persons in like circumstances.” “There is a presumption of purpose behind every sentence, clause or phrase in a legislative enactment so that in construing it no part is treated as insignificant and unnecessary.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Zichichi v. Middlesex Memorial Hospital, 204 Conn. 399, 407, 528 A.2d 805 (1987); see also Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities v. Truelove & Maclean, Inc., 238 Conn. 337, 347, 680 A.2d 1261 (1996) (“[w]e presume that the legislature had a purpose for each sentence, clause or phrase in a legislative enactment, and that it did not intend to enact meaningless provisions” [internal quotation marks omitted]). In addition, “the use of different words in the same enactment must indicate a difference in legislative intention.” Steadwell v. Warden, 186 Conn. 153, 164, 439 A.2d 1078 (1982) (Shea, J., dissenting). It is clear that it was the legislature’s intention to make the state liable as if it were a private person once the commissioner authorized an action pursuant to § 4-160, *280and, in doing so, the legislature leveled the playing field by also giving the state the same rights (including defenses) in such litigation as a private person.
The legislative history, as indicated by Oberst, whose office drafted the statute at the direction of the 1953 legislature, clearly indicates that its intent was that once the permission to bring an action against the state was granted by the claims commission, the state’s liability would be coextensive with that of a private person. Litigants regularly brought actions in court against state employees and officers because sovereign immunity barred such actions brought directly against the state, and those state employees and officers could be held liable on the same basis as a private person. Conn. Joint Standing Committee Hearings, Appropriations, Pt. 3, 1959 Sess., p. 922. In justifying No. 685, § 25, of the 1959 Public Acts, the portion of the act that would grant immunity to state employees and would force claims for the conduct of employees to be disposed of by the proposed claims legislation, Oberst testified that “ [w]ith the state providing its citizens with a just and equitable means of presenting claims [as a result of the claims commission legislation], continuing the liability of state employees appears unnecessary and, in practice, constitutes a burden on state employment. Such a provision [providing immunity for state officers and employees] has been included in the proposal recommended by the Council.”20 Id.
*281This court has clearly indicated that once the commissioner authorizes a claimant to bring an action against the state, pursuant to § 4-160, the state’s liability is coextensive with that of a private person. In Tamm v. Burns, 222 Conn. 280, 281-82, 610 A.2d 590 (1992), the plaintiff sought damages against the state claiming a taking of his land under the state constitution because of the “state’s operation of a truck inspection and weigh station on its property, which [was] adjacent to his [property], [that] caused additional noise, unsightliness and air pollution on his property . . . .” The court found that the inverse condemnation allegations did not support a traditional taking that would trigger the state constitution, but, rather, the allegations did show a substantial interference with the plaintiffs property. Id., 285-86. The court held that it need not decide whether a substantial interference with property rights reaches the level of a constitutional taking under a more expansive view of the state constitution, because the plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies by not seeking, among other things, permission from the commissioner to bring an action for damages against the state pursuant to § 4-160. Id., 288-90. In Tamm, the court reasoned that another remedy had been available to the plaintiff as follows: “In accordance with article eleventh, § 4, of the Connecticut constitution, the Gen*282eral Assembly has established the office of the . . . commissioner, granting to the . . . commissioner the power to waive the state’s sovereign immunity when he ‘deems it just and equitable’ and to authorize suit ‘on any claim which, in his opinion, presents an issue of law or fact under which the state, were it a private person, could be hable.’ General Statutes § 4-160 (a).” Tamm v. Burns, supra, 289-90.
Likewise, in Doe v. Heintz, 204 Conn. 17, 35-36, 526 A.2d 318 (1987), this court acknowledged that in actions authorized by the commissioner under § 4-160, the state’s liability to the claimant is coextensive with that of a private person. The plaintiffs in Doe sought attorneys’ fees from the state with respect to litigation in which they had successfully compelled the state to fund abortions requested by women eligible for state medical assistance. Id., 18-19. The court, in determining whether the plaintiffs failed to exhaust their administrative remedies by not seeking relief from the commissioner, stated: “Our determination in part I [of the opinion] that a private party in the same position as the state in this case would not have been liable for attorneys’ fees would render fruitless an authorization to sue the state, because its liability in such a suit is ‘coextensive’ with that of a private person [pursuant to § 4-160 (a)].” Id., 36. Nevertheless, the court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies because they could have sought relief from the commissioner under his authority to grant compensation pursuant to other statutory provisions. Id., 36-37.
Finally, in Sullivan v. State, 189 Conn. 550, 457 A.2d 304 (1983), the plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of General Statutes § 4-165, which prohibits an action against a state employee. The court refused to resolve the question because the plaintiff failed to exhaust her administrative remedies by not seeking permission to *283sue the state from the commissioner pursuant to § 4-160. Id., 559. The court stated that “[i]n such authorized actions the rights and liability of the state are coextensive with and equal to those of a private person in like circumstances.” Id., 557. Similarly, this court pointed out in Fidelity Bank v. State, 166 Conn. 251, 254, 348 A.2d 633 (1974), where the plaintiffs direct action against the state based on negligence was dismissed, that a claim could have been presented to the claims commission and that if the action were permitted, the state’s liability would have been coextensive with and equal to the liability of a private person.
Other jurisdictions have considered similar “private person” standards in their tort claims acts and have held that recovery is to be allowed against the state if recovery would be allowed against a private party. See Reddish v. Smith, 468 So. 2d 929, 932 (Fla. 1985) (“recovery is to be allowed [against the state] only to the extent that such is available against a private person for the same kind of conduct”); Barringer v. State, 111 Idaho 794, 801, 727 P.2d 1222 (1986) (stating that, under state’s Tort Claims Act, “the state waives sovereign immunity and subjects itself to the same liability as would attach to a private person" [emphasis added]); Sterling v. Bloom, 111 Idaho 211, 216, 723 P.2d 755 (1986) (“The statute says that if ñ. private person would be liable for the misconduct alleged against the government, regardless of whether the private individuals ordinarily fill the same underlying function or role of the government, so will be the government. In other words, if a cause of action would lie against a private individual, it will also lie against the government.” [emphasis in original]); Denis Bail Bonds, Inc. v. State, 159 Vt. 481, 486, 622 A.2d 495 (1993) (“governmental liability may arise only if a plaintiffs cause of action is comparable to a cause of action against a private citizen . . . and his allegations, taken as true, [will] satisfy the necessary *284elements of that comparable state cause of action” [internal quotation marks omitted]).
Indeed, during the period in the 1950s when our legislature was considering whether to create a claims commission, the United States Supreme Court, in 1955, decided Indian Towing Co. v. United States, 350 U.S. 61, 76 S. Ct. 122,100 L. Ed. 48 (1955), under the Federal Tort Claims Act. In Indian Towing Co., the court stated that “[t]he broad and just purpose which the [Federal Tort Claims Act] was designed to effect was to compensate the victims of negligence in the conduct of governmental activities in circumstances like unto those in which a private person would be liable and not to leave just treatment to the caprice and legislative burden of individual private laws.” (Emphasis added.) Id., 68-69.21 The claim in Indian Towing Co. was for damages to a vessel that ran aground due to the United States Coast Guard’s alleged negligence in not maintaining the beacon light in a lighthouse. Id., 62. The Supreme Court addressed the government’s argument as follows: “[T]he Government contends that the language of the [Federal Tort Claims Act] imposing liability ‘in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances . . .’ must be read as exclud*285ing liability in the performance of activities which private persons do not perform. Thus, there would be no liability for negligent performance of ‘uniquely governmental functions.’ The Government reads the statute as if it imposed liability to the same extent as would be imposed on a private individual ‘under the same circumstances.’ But the statutory language is ‘under like circumstances,’ and it is hornbook tort law that one who undertakes to warn the public of danger and thereby induces reliance must perform his ‘good Samaritan’ task in a careful manner.
“Furthermore, the Government in effect reads the statute as imposing liability in the same manner as if it were a municipal corporation and not as if it were a private person, and it would thus push the courts into the ‘non-governmental’-‘govemmentar quagmire that has long plagued the law of municipal corporations. . . . The Federal Tort Claims Act cuts the ground from under [the] doctrine [of sovereign immunity]; it is not self-defeating by covertly embedding the casuistries of municipal liability for torts.” Id., 64-65. The Supreme Court has subsequently relied on its decision in Indian Towing Co. See Sheridan v. United, States, 487 U.S. 392, 401, 108 S. Ct. 2449, 101 L. Ed. 2d 352 (1988); Berkovitz v. United States, 486 U.S. 531, 538 n.3, 108 S. Ct. 1945, 100 L. Ed. 2d 531 (1988).
As recently as 1983, the United States Supreme Court stated, in the context of an indemnity action brought by ari airplane manufacturer against the United States as a result of the death of a civilian employee of the armed forces in a military airplane crash, that “[t]he Federal Tort Claims Act permits an indemnity action against the United States ‘in the same manner and to the same extent’ that the action would lie against ‘a private individual under like circumstances.’ ” Lockheed Aircraft Corp. v. United States, 460 U.S. 190, 198, 103 S. Ct. 1033, 74 L. Ed. 2d 911 (1983).
*286Finally, it makes eminent sense that once the commissioner, as the conscience of the state, makes a determination that it is “just and equitable” to grant a claimant permission to sue the state, the state’s liability is coextensive with that of a private person. For example, in this case, after the finding by the commissioner that justice requires that the state respond to the claims of the plaintiff, it would make no sense for this court to then deny the claim because there is, with respect to an employee contract, no such recognized cause of action against the state or because of an extraordinary showing that must be made in an action brought against the state based on promissory estoppel. The legislature simply wanted to provide that if a claim is authorized by law against a private person, and the plaintiff can prove each element required for liability against a private person under such cause of action (subject, of course, to the state being able to exert any such defenses that a private person would have), then damages should be awarded. The commissioner does not authorize every claimant to bring an action against the state, but, rather, only those claimants with claims that are deemed “just and equitable.” See Circle Lanes of Fairfield, Inc. v. Fay, 195 Conn. 534, 535-36, 489 A.2d 363 (1985) (commissioner refused to permit claimant to bring action against state for damage to plaintiffs property as result of alleged negligence of state in causing flooding).
The nature of the state’s liability in any action brought pursuant to the commissioner’s permission under § 4-160 is a legislative determination. The majority, without any analysis, summarily proclaims that the language of § 4-160 — that provides that the state’s liability will be as if it were “a private person” and that the “rights and liability of the state in each such action shall be coextensive with and shall equal the rights and liability of private persons in like circumstances” — does not *287mean what it says. This failure on the part of the majority to give effect to the clear intent of the legislature tramples on the separation of powers clause set forth in article second of the state constitution. No court should be “a self-constituted guardian of the Treasury [and] import immunity back into a statute designed to limit it.” Indian Towing Co. v. United States, supra, 350 U.S. 69.
Accordingly, I dissent.22

 I agree with part I of the majority opinion, which holds that Special Acts 1991, No. 91-8, does not violate the “exclusive public emoluments” clause of article first, § 1, of the Connecticut constitution. I also agree with parts II and III, which hold that the plaintiffs claim was not barred by General Statutes § 4-142 or § 4-148 and, therefore, the claims commissioner was able to authorize the present action against the state.

 See, e.g., 1 Private Acts, May Sess., 1845, p.70, under the caption “Orders on the Treasurer,” and entitled “Hiram Hawkins,” which provides: “Resolved, That the Comptroller of Public Accounts be, and he is hereby authorized and directed to draw an order on the Treasurer, in favor of Hiram Hawkins, for the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars: — the same being in compensation for injuries received by said Hawkins, in the service of this state.”

 See, e.g., 28 Spec. Acts 514, No. 434 (1957), entitled “An Act Reimbursing Helen B. Bauer of Pomfret,” which provides: “The comptroller is directed to draw his order on the treasurer for the sum of five hundred dollars to reimburse Helen B. Bauer of Pomfret for damages sustained by reason of the termination of her contract for services with the welfare department.”

 See, e.g., 27 Spec. Acts 276, No. 341 (1955), entitled “An Act Authorizing Burgess and Blacher Company To Sue the State,” which provides: “Permission is granted to Burgess and Blacher Company of 18 Eustis Street, Boston, Massachusetts, to bring an action against the state to recover damages claimed to have been sustained by it in the construction of additional work *272performed on the state armory, which work was requested by the state. Any action brought under this act shall be brought on or before the first day of January, 1956, to the superior court at Hartford. The state reserves the right of all legal defenses in such action.”
Another act, 29 Spec. Acts 215, No. 228 (1959), entitled “An Act Authorizing Reginald Mitchell To Sue the State of Connecticut and the Highway Commissioner for the State of Connecticut,” provides: “Permission is granted to Reginald Mitchell of Seymour, Connecticut, to bring an action against the state of Connecticut and the highway commissioner for the state of Connecticut, for damages caused by a fall on August 30,1958, on a stair in a building at 78 Raymond Street, Seymour, Connecticut. Such action shall be tried to a court without a jury and no costs or interests shall be included in any judgment against the state. Such action shall be brought on or before the first Tuesday of September, 1959. Neither the statute of limitations nor governmental immunity shall be pleaded as a bar thereto.”

 See 29 Spec. Acts 214, No. 226 (1959), entitled “An Act Providing for Salary Reimbursement to Thomas J. Foley,” which provides: “The comptroller shall draw his order on the treasurer for the sum of eight hundred and sixty dollars to reimburse Thomas J. Foley of Canaan for salary lost from September 1, 1939, to July 1, 1940, when he was relieved of his duties as a state employee by the commissioner of domestic animals and subsequently reinstated at a lower salary. Upon payment to the state employees’ retirement fund of twenty-one dollars and fifty two cents plus interest on said account of five percent per annum from the above-mentioned period, the comptroller is directed to compute the retirement status of Thomas J. Foley as though he were not relieved of his duties or did not suffer a reduction in salary during the above-mentioned period.”

 See Conn. Joint Standing Committee Hearings, Appropriations, Pt. 3, 1959 Sess., pp. 919-22.

 The legislative council was the predecessor of the office of legislative research and the office of fiscal analysis, both of which were created by the joint committee on legislative management. See General Statutes § 2-71c.

 In 1959, Oberst testified as follows: “Because of the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the State, unlike most of its citizens, is immune from liability and from suit; that is, without its consent the State cannot be held liable in a legal action for any damage or injury it may cause. By general law, the Governor and the Comptroller have authority to settle claims of a very minor nature. But traditionally it is the duty of the General Assembly to hear and decide the great variety of demands made upon the State for the payment of money. When claims are few in number and the financial outlay is small, legislative determination can function efficiently. But as the number of claims increases and demands upon the treasury grow in size, the legislative process becomes progressively incapable of handling them efficiently. Other more important demands upon the time of legislators and the natural limitations of legislative investigation do not always insure a just determination. This natural inadequacy is further complicated by the fact that some unsatisfied claimants reappear every session with the same claims, forcing the legislature into useless repetition. Despite an earnest desire to honor legitimate claims, there is little to assure the equity and justice which the state rightly demands and which claimants rightly deserve.” Conn. Joint Standing Committee Hearings, Appropriations, Pt. 3, 1959 Sess., pp. 919-20.

 General Statutes § 4-158 provides: “Jurisdiction of commissioner. Payment of claim. Report to assembly. Waiver of payment on protest to assembly. (a) The Claims Commissioner may approve immediate payment of just claims not exceeding seven thousand five hundred dollars. The clerk of the Office of the Claims Commissioner shall deliver to the Comptroller a certified copy of the Claims Commissioner’s order and the Comptroller shall malee payment from such appropriation as the General Assembly may have made for the payment of claims or, in the case of contractual claims for goods or services furnished or for property leased, from the appropriation of the agency which received such goods or services or occupied such property. Within five days after the convening of each regular session, the Claims Commissioner shall report to the General Assembly on all claims decided pursuant to this section.
“(b) Any person who, having filed a claim for more than seven thousand five hundred dollars, wishes to protest an award of the Claims Commissioner under the provisions of this section may waive immediate payment and his claim shall be submitted to the General Assembly under the provisions of section 4-159. Such waiver shall be in writing and shall be filed with the Claims Commissioner within ten days after the claimant receives a copy of the order approving payment.”

 General Statutes § 4-159 provides: “Recommendations for payments in excess of seven thousand five hundred dollars. Action by General Assembly. After hearing, the Claims Commissioner shall make his recommendations to the General Assembly for the payment or rejection of amounts exceeding seven thousand five hundred dollars. Within five days after the convening of each regular session and at such other times as the speaker of the House of Representatives and president pro tempore of the Senate may desire, the Claims Commissioner shall submit such recommendations to the General Assembly, together with a copy of his findings and of the hearing record of each claim so reported. The General Assembly may (1) accept or alter any such recommendation or (2) reject any such recommendation and grant or deny the claimant permission to sue the state. The General Asse>nbly may grant the claimant permission to sue the state under the provisions of this section when the General Assembly deems it just and equitable and believes the claim to present an issue of law or fact under which the state, were it a private person, could be liable.” (Emphasis added.)

 General Statutes § 4-160 provides in relevant part: “Authorization of actions against the state, (a) When the Claims Commissioner deems it just and equitable, he may authorize suit against the state on any claim which, in his opinion, presents an issue of law or fact under which the state, were it a private person, could be liable.
“(b) In each action authorized by the Claims Commissioner pursuant to subsection (a) of this section or by the General Assembly pursuant to section *2754-159, the claimant shall allege such authorization and the date on which it was granted. The state waives its immunity from liability and from suit in each such action and waives all defenses which might arise from the eleemosynary or governmental nature of the activity complained of. The rights and liability of the state in ea,ch such action shall be coextensive with and shall equal the rights and liability of private persons in like circumstances. ...” (Emphasis added.)

 The plaintiffs odyssey through the courts and legislature produced, in addition to the present action, two other actions, two special acts, and a public act that created anewprovision in the General Statutes. See Chotkowski v. Connecticut Personnel Appeal Board, 176 Conn. 1, 6, 404 A.2d 868 (1978) (Chotkowski I) (affirming trial court holding that plaintiff was permanent employee in classified state service for purposes of General Statutes § 5-202 [a]; subsequently, parties agreed to settlement of plaintiffs termination claim); Special Acts 1985, No. 85-24 (S.A. 85-24) (validating late filing of notice with commissioner of claim for plaintiffs lost wages); Chotkowski v. State, 213 Conn. 13, 18-19, 566 A.2d 419 (1989) (Chotkowski II) (holding that S.A 85-24 constituted prohibited “exclusive public emolument” given to plaintiff in violation of article first, § 1, of Connecticut constitution and ordering dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction); Public Acts 1990, No. 90-284, § 3 (codified as General Statutes § 4-148 [b], which provides that legislature may authorize person to present claim to commissioner after time limitation has run provided that legislature “deems such authorization to be just and equitable and makes an express finding that such authorization is supported by compelling equitable circumstances and would serve apublic purpose”; new provision in General Statutes was crafted in this manner so as to avoid constitutional “exclusive public emoluments” problem that plaintiff faced in Chotkowski II, and circumstances surrounding plaintiffs claim against state was catalyst for this new legislation, as is apparent from plaintiffs testimony before the judiciary committee in support of bill); Special Acts 1991, No. 91-8 (authorized plaintiff to present lost wage claim to commissioner once again, but this time legislature made legislative finding, pursuant to § 4-148 [b], that because plaintiff was misinformed and misled by state official regarding his state employment dispute, there were compelling equitable circumstances to support such authorization and that public purpose would be served by allowing such authorization). This appeal presents the plaintiffs third visit to this court with respect to his employment with the state.

 The trial court relied on the following from Pineman: “Although there is a seductive appeal in the contract-oriented approaches adopted by other jurisdictions, we decline to depart from the well established rules of statutory construction discussed earlier, namely, that a statute does not create vested contractual rights absent a clear statement of legislative intent to contract.” Pineman v. Oechslin, supra, 195 Conn. 414.

 The trial court relied on the following from Kimberly-Clark Corp.: “[Ejstoppel against a public agency is limited and may be invoked: (1) only with great caution; (2) only when the action in question has been induced by an agent having authority in such matters; and (3) only when special circumstances make it highly inequitable or oppressive not to estop the agency. ... As noted, this exception applies where the party claiming estoppel would be subjected to substantial loss if the public agency were permitted to negate the acts of its agents. [I]t is the burden of the person claiming the estoppel to show that he exercised due diligence to ascertain the truth and that he not only lacked knowledge of the true state of things but had no convenient means of acquiring that knowledge.” (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Kimberly-Clark Corp. v. Dubno, supra, 204 Conn. 148.

 The trial court also relied on the following from Pineman: “The promissory estoppel approach, in focusing attention on the reasonable expectations of the employee, ignores the distinction traditionally made between private and public entities in determining the existence of contractual rights and obligations. ‘[CJourts have consistently refused to give effect to government-fostered expectations that, had they arisen in the private sector, might well have formed the basis for a contract or an estoppel.’ Kizas v. Webster, 707 F.2d 524, 535 (D.C. Cir. 1983). This distinction can be viewed as another way *277of articulating the requirement of an express legislative intent to contract.” Pineman v. Oechslin, supra, 195 Conn. 415.

 For the purposes of this case, I do not disagree that under Pineman and Kimberly-Clark Corp., the plaintiff cannot succeed in his claims against, the state. Nevertheless, once the commissioner (the conscience of the state) malees a determination that it is just and equitable to authorize an action against the state, it becomes a whole new ball game. Pineman and Kimberly-Clark Corp., under the circumstances of those cases, have no relevance in the present case because the action against the state here is as if it were against a private person.

 Pineman was a class action. Kinney v. State, 213 Conn. 54, 566 A.2d 670 (1989), also relied on by the majority, was an appeal from the workers’ compensation commission to the compensation review division, which then reserved certain questions of law.

 Kimberly-Clark Corp. was an appeal from the commissioner of revenue services.

 See footnote 11 of this dissent.

 The present version of the statute is found in General Statutes § 4-165, which provides: “Immunity of state officers and employees from personal liability. No 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. Any person having a complaint for such damage or injury shall present it as a claim against the state under the provisions of this chapter. For the purposes of this section ‘scope of employment’ shall include, but not be limited to, representation by an attorney appointed by the Public Defender Services Commission as a public defender, assistant public defender or deputy assistant public defender or an attorney appointed by the court as a special assistant public defender *281of an indigent accused or of a child on a petition of delinquency, representation by such other attorneys, referred to in section 4-141, of state officers and employees, in actions brought against such officers and employees in their official and individual capacities, the discharge of duties as a trustee of the state employees retirement system, the discharge of duties of a commissioner of Superior Court hearing small claims matters or acting as a fact-finder, arbitrator or magistrate or acting in any other quasi-judicial position, and the discharge of duties of a person appointed to a committee established by law for the purpose of rendering services to the Judicial Department; provided such actions arise out of the discharge of the duties or within the scope of employment of such officers or employees. For purposes of this section, members or employees of the soil and water district boards established pursuant to section 22a-315 shall be considered state employees.”

 In Indian Towing Co. v. United States, supra, 350 U.S. 63, the court quoted the Federal Tort Claims Act as follows: “The relevant provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act are 28 U.S.C. [§] 1346 (b) [which provides that] ‘the district courts . . . shall have exclusive jurisdiction of civil actions on claims against the United States, for money damages, accruing on and after January 1, 1945, for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred . . . [and] § 2674 [which provides that] ‘[t]he United States shall be liable ... in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances, but shall not be liable for interest prior to judgment or for punitive damages.’ ” (Emphasis added.)

 I would reverse and remand the case to the trial court for a new trial wherein the state’s liability would be coextensive with that of a private person. In other words, if, under the facts found by the trial court, a private person would be liable under the law of contract or, in the alternative, under the law of promissory estoppel, then the state should be similarly liable for damages.