Court Opinion

ID: 9766032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:29:38.364172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:18.623779
License: Public Domain

House, C. J.
(dissenting). I do not agree with the conclusion reached in the majority opinion and think that an order should be entered dismissing the appeal since it is not taken from a final judgment—or from any judgment whatsoever. It is an appeal from an interlocutory ruling of a judge of the Superior Court denying an application for a *374temporary injunction and from time immemorial it has been held that no appeal lies from such an interlocutory ruling of a judge. This holding is in accord with the provisions of § 600 of the Practice Book and §52-263 of the General Statutes which only authorize appeals to this court “from the. final judgment of the court or of such judge.”
The law as it has been established up until the present decision was well expressed by Chief Justice King in Devine Bros., Inc. v. International Brotherhood, 145 Conn. 77, 79, 139 A.2d 60. In that case the trial court issued a temporary injunction forbidding the picketing of the plaintiff’s place of business until there would be a trial on the merits and the defendant appealed on many grounds. This court, in a unanimous opinion, stated the law thusly: “At the outset we are faced with a jurisdictional question as to whether an appeal is possible in this case. This question must be resolved before we can consider the appeal on the merits. Riley v. Board of Police Commissioners, 145 Conn. 1, 6, 137 A.2d 759. The taking of an appeal from the granting or denial of a temporary injunction is ordinarily impossible, since such an order is not a final judgment. Olcott v. Pendleton, 128 Conn. 292, 295, 22 A.2d 633. . . . [S]uch an appeal lies if, but only if, the injunction was granted in a ease ‘involving or growing out of a labor dispute.’ H. O. Canfield Co. v. United Construction Workers, 134 Conn. 358, 360, 57 A.2d 624. Unless the present case falls in that category, this appeal must be dismissed.”
In the present case, the plaintiff sought a temporary and a permanent injunction by a writ, summons and complaint dated August 27, 1974, and returnable to the Superior Court in Windham *375County on the third Tuesday of September, 1974. On August 27, 1974, Barber, J., acting as a judge of the Superior Court, issued an order to the defendant to appear on September 5, 1974, “to show cause why a temporary injunction should not be issued against you as prayed for in said complaint and application.” There followed next a memorandum of decision signed by Driscoll, J., dated September 14, 1974. That memorandum commences with this statement: “This matter is before the court in response to an order to show cause why a temporary injunction should not be issued as prayed for in a complaint and application as filed with the Superior Court,” and notes that “[a]part from the complaint and the previously referred to order to show cause there has been no further pleadings in this matter.” The memorandum of decision concluded with this sentence: “Accordingly, the relief sought herein is denied without prejudice.”
Not only were the pleadings never closed but no judgment whatsoever was ever entered and, for obvious reasons in this state of the record, no finding ever requested or filed. The only action taken by the presiding judge was to make an interlocutory ruling which denied “without prejudice” the application for a temporary injunction. Under our heretofore settled law, no appeal lies from such an interlocutory ruling and the majority opinion cites no authority of this court to the contrary.
It suffices to conclude with a quotation from the opinion of Chief Justice Maltbie in Marcil v. Merriman & Sons, Inc., 115 Conn. 678, 682, 163 A. 411: “There is no warrant in law for such an appeal as the one before us. Whenever the absence of juris*376diction of a proceeding is brought to the notice of a court, cognizance of the fact must be taken and the matter determined before it can move a further step in the case. Woodmont Asso. v. Milford, 85 Conn. 517, 524, 84 A. 307. Jurisdiction to entertain a particular proceeding cannot be conferred by waiver or consent. McDonald v. Hugo, 93 Conn. 360, 364, 105 A. 709; Savings Bank of Danbury v. Downs, 74 Conn. 87, 89, 49 A. 913. Where there is no judgment or ruling from which an appeal can be taken, the attempted appeal must be dismissed, either on motion of the parties or by the court upon its own motion. In re Application of Title & Guaranty Co., 109 Conn. 45, 51, 145 A. 151. In Russell Lumber Co. v. Smith & Co., 82 Conn. 517, 74 A. 949, there was an attempt to appeal from the denial of a motion for a stay of execution; examination of the record of the case shows that no motion to dismiss the appeal or similar proceeding was taken; the court, however, refused to entertain the appeal. We said: ‘The statute provides for appeals only from final judgments. The present appeal is not from such a judgment. It was therefore unwarranted and improper, and gives to this court no jurisdiction over the case. The appeal is erased from the docket.’ These decisions mark out our proper course.”
The appeal from the denial, without prejudice, of the plaintiff’s application for a temporary injunction should be dismissed.