Jepsen Shelves Appeal To U.S. Supreme Court Of Unions’ Victory; Seeks To Negotiate Settlement

HARTFORD — Attorney General George Jepsen said Monday he will not appeal a court decision awarding substantial damages to unionized state employees who successfully challenged former Gov. John G. Rowland‘s layoff of 2,800 workers in 2003.

Jepsen said his office is withdrawing a request for Supreme Court review of a federal appeals court’s May 31 decision in favor of the unions – in hopes that a settlement of the protracted and expensive litigation can be negotiated with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, or SEBAC.

If those negotiations fail to end the case, Jepsen said he can always reinstate his request for the Supreme Court to review it. Although the odds are against the high court reviewing the decision, the possibility of that happening may give the unions an incentive to settle the case rather than risk it, Jepsen said.

“The decision to suspend our request for Supreme Court review in order to engage in settlement discussions is not one made lightly, but is made with the best interest of Connecticut taxpayers squarely in mind.” Jepsen told reporters during a briefing in his Hartford office. “I have conferred with Gov. Malloy, and he fully supports this step.”

Jepsen said he received a letter last week from the union coalition’s lawyer, proposing negotiations for a possible settlement.

In the May 31 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a 2011 U.S. District Court judgment in favor of the state. The 2^nd Circuit panel upheld SEBAC’s claim that Rowland, his then-budget chief, Marc Ryan, and the state acted illegally by targeting union members for layoffs while sparing non-union employees.

The appellate panel sent the case back to the local U.S. District Court level in Connecticut to decide what damages the state may have to pay to the unionized employees. Jepsen has said those damages could be costly, with “potentially significant fiscal consequences for Connecticut taxpayers.”

So far, the 10-year-old case has cost taxpayers nearly $1 million in payments to outside law firms who have defended the state.