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MUNICIPAL LAW: Appellate Court holds employee’s indemnification action against municipal employer was timely

A third party lawsuit was brought against a municipal employee for alleged misconduct during the course of the employee’s employment as former tax assessor for the City of New Haven.

The city refused the employee’s request for provision of legal representation and the employee provided his own defense, ultimately prevailing against the third party action.  The city continued to refuse indemnification for the employee’s legal representation and the employee sued and prevailed.  The city then appealed, arguing that the indemnification action should fail because it did not comply with the notice requirement and time limitation of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-101 a(d).

The Appellate Court sustained, holding that the notice period and time limitation of plaintiff’s cause of action for indemnification began to run when the employee could have first held the city liable.  The employee could not have done so until the third party action concluded.

O’Brien v. City of New Haven, 176 Conn.App. 469 (12/5/2017)