Duprey v. Connecticut, Department of Motor Vehicles

The plaintiff, a towing company, appealed to the Superior Court from the decision of the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles (commissioner) grant- ing certain towing and storage rate increases, which were generally less than what the plaintiff requested in its petition filed pursuant to statute (§ 14-66 (a) (2)). The plaintiff claimed that the final decision of the commissioner was not supported by substantial evidence in the record. The court rendered judgment dismissing the plaintiff's appeal, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court. Held: 1. The commissioner's balancing of the relevant statutory and regulatory factors was within the commissioner's discretion and the exercise of this discretion was not unreasonable, arbitrary or illegal; both § 14-66 (a) (2) and the regulation (§ 14-63-36a) governing tow and storage rates included the word ''may,'' and provided the commissioner with the discretion to consider and weigh certain factors as the commissioner saw fit in order to achieve a just and reasonable result, and, if the commissioner were required to weigh the factors in a particular manner, the term ''may'' would effectively be rendered meaningless, depriving the commissioner of the discretion vested in the commissioner by the legislature; moreover, it was not for this court to substitute its own judgment for that of the administrative agency on the weight of the evidence or questions of fact. 2. The plaintiff could not prevail on its claim that the commissioner's decision was not supported by substantial evidence in the record: in light of the record and the considerable discretion granted to the commissioner, and contrary to the plaintiff's argument, the commissioner did in fact consider implementing a rate increase beyond the Consumer Price Index; moreover, because the plaintiff merely challenged the manner in which the commissioner weighed the facts, it asked this court to retry the case and substitute its judgment for that of the commissioner, which thi

The Rio Blanco County Department of Human Services (Department) became involved with the parents in this case as a result of concerns about the children's welfare due to the condition of the family home, the parents' use of methamphetamine, and criminal cases involving the parents. Attempts at voluntary services failed, and on the Department's petition for dependency and neglect, the district court ultimately terminated the parents' rights. On appeal, the parents contended that the Department failed to make reasonable efforts to reunify them with their children. Specifically, the parents contended that the Department did not give them sufficient time to complete the services under their treatment plans and failed to accommodate their drug testing needs. The termination hearing was not held until more than a year after the motion to terminate was filed. For nine months before the motion to terminate was filed, the Department provided numerous services to the parents, including substance abuse therapy, therapeutic visitation supervision, drug abuse monitoring, and a parental capacity evaluation. The Department also provided counseling for the children. Both parents missed drug tests and tested positive during the testing period, and both were arrested for possession of methamphetamine during the pendency of the case. The Department made reasonable accommodations to meet the parents' needs and the parents had sufficient time to comply with their treatment plans. The record supports the trial court's findings that termination was appropriate because (1) the court-approved appropriate treatment plan had not been complied with by the parents or had not been successful in rehabilitating them (2) the parents were unfit and (3) the conduct or condition of the parents was unlikely to change within a reasonable time. Father also contended that the trial court's decision to interview the 9-year-old twin children together in chambers fundamentally and seriously affected the basi