Opinion
(SC 17770), (SC 17771)
Submitted May 13, 2008
Officially released July 8, 2008
Action, in the first case, to recover damages for the defendants' failure to pay the legally mandated minimum wage to certain of their employees, and for other relief, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Hartford and transferred to the judicial district of Waterbury, Complex Litigation Docket, where the court, Sheedy, J., denied the plaintiffs' motion for certification of a class action; thereafter, the plaintiff's appealed to the Appellate Court, which granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the appeal for lack of a final judgment; subsequently, the plaintiff's, on the granting of certification, appealed to this court. Affirmed.
Action, in the second case, to recover damages for the defendant's failure to pay the legally mandated minimum wage to certain of its employees, and for other relief, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of New Britain and transferred to the judicial district of Hartford, Complex Litigation Docket, where the court, Langenbach, J., denied the plaintiffs' motion for certification of a class action; thereafter, the plaintiff's appealed to the Appellate Court, which granted the defendant's motion to dismiss the appeal for lack of a final judgment; subsequently, the plaintiffs, on the granting of certification, appealed to this court. Affirmed.
Anthony J. Pantuso III, Richard E. Hayber, Daniel S. Blinn, Sarah Poriss and William Madsen, for the appellants (plaintiffs in both cases).
Margaret J. Strange, for the appellees (defendants in the first case, defendant in the second case).
Opinion
The plaintiffs unsuccessfully sought orders granting them class certification in actions in which they claimed that the defendants had failed to pay them the required minimum wage. After the trial court denied the plaintiffs' requests for class certification, they appealed to the Appellate Court. That court dismissed the appeals for lack of a final judgment, and we granted certification on the question of whether an order denying class certification is a final judgment. In Palmer v. Friendly Ice Cream Corp., 285 Conn. 462, 482, 940 A.2d 742 (2008), we answered that question by holding that such an order is not a final judgment. After ordering the parties to file briefs on why the Appellate Court's judgments of dismissal should not be affirmed in light of our decision in that case, we now affirm the Appellate Court's judgments.
In both of these cases, we granted the plaintiffs' petitions for certification to appeal, limited to the following issue: "Is an order denying a motion for class certification a final judgment for purposes of appeal?" Bucchere v. Brinker International, Inc., 280 Conn. 938, 910 A.2d 217 (2006); Orozco v. Darden Restaurants, Inc., 280 Conn. 939, 910 A.2d 218 (2006).
The judgments of the Appellate Court are affirmed.