High Court To Decide On Benefits For Constables
Justices Hear Arguments In Case From East Lyme

By Ethan Rouen
Day Staff Writer, East Lyme, Salem
Published on 10/19/2004

The state Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that will decide whether municipalities with constabulary forces are required to pay costly heart and hypertension benefits to their constables.

The case, Edward Genesky v. Town of East Lyme,dates back to 1999, when Genesky, then an East Lyme constable, suffered a heart attack that prevented him from working. The town denied him a benefit established in the 1970s that pays police officers and firefighters if they cannot work as a result of high blood pressure or heart disease, regardless of whether they were stricken while on duty.

The town argues, based on a 1981 ruling, that the benefit is for paid municipal police departments that operate under a board of police commissioners. East Lyme argues that it should not have to pay the benefit because it has only a constabulary force overseen by a resident state trooper.

The first selectman serves as chief of police. East Lyme does not have a board of police commissioners.

“The fact that East Lyme does not have a board of commissioners doesn't mean they don't have a police department,” said Nathan Shafner, the attorney representing Genesky.

Shafner said the town has previously paid heart and hypertension benefits to another constable, and the current contract between the police and the town includes an agreement that the town will receive compensation when it pays the benefit.

Michael Carey, the attorney representing the town, said the benefit was included in the contract in case an officer is loaned to another department that has the benefit, or the town decides to create a full-time police department.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities has lobbied for years to eliminate the benefit, calling it in a written statement “perhaps the most onerous unfunded state mandate on Ct. cities and towns.”

From the early 1970s until 1996, municipalities spent more than $200 million out of pocket on heart and hypertension benefits not covered by insurance. In 1996 the conference was successful in eliminating the benefit for officers and firefighters who were hired after July 1, 1996.

The benefit cost municipalities $21 million in 1995, the last year for which data was available.

Several municipalities in the area, including Ledyard and Montville, do not offer heart and hypertension benefits because they have constabulary forces and no boards of police commissioners, but the Supreme Court's decision, which is expected to be released in three to four months, could require them to provide the benefit.

New London, Norwich and Groton all offer the benefit, although they do not have boards of police commissioners.

The arguments Wednesday often focused on the difference between a constable and a police officer. Each receives the same training and performs most of the same duties, but constables are not allowed to investigate certain felonies.

Shafner said most of the 169 municipalities in Connecticut have appointed constables, but the judges were skeptical about his claim that East Lyme has a police force.

“I just wonder if, colloquially, the members of the town think they have a police department, and I would think they don't,” Justice Richard Palmer said.

Shafner countered that even the town's police cars read “Town of East Lyme Police Department.”

The justices grilled Carey after he argued that Genesky's claim should be dismissed because it was filed more than a year after he was first diagnosed with hypertension.

Employees are required to file a claim within a year of a diagnosis, and many municipalities dismiss claims because they are filed late, according to several lawyers who deal with workers compensation.

In 1992, a doctor diagnosed Genesky with high blood pressure, but Genesky never filed a claim under the heart and hypertension eligibility. The town argues that the hypertension was a direct cause of the heart attack he suffered seven years later.

However, Chief Justice William Sullivan said there is not enough evidence that high blood pressure was solely responsible for Genesky's heart attack.

“Hypertension is only one factor in heart problems,” Sullivan said. “If a doctor says your blood pressure is a little high, that's a rough definition of hypertension.”