LAW OFFICES OF NEIL JOHNSON v. 
ADMINISTRATOR, UNEMPLOYMENT 
COMPENSATION ACT, ET AL. 
(AC 27506) 


Opinion 

GRUENDEL, J. The plaintiff, the Law Offices of Neil 
Johnson, appeals from the judgment of the trial court 
dismissing its appeal from the decision of the employment 
security board of review (board). The board 
affirmed the decision of the defendant administrator of 
the Unemployment Compensation Act, General Statutes 
§ 31-222 et seq., finding the plaintiff liable for unemployment 
contributions regarding Dorothy V. Parsons, 
its former employee.1 On appeal, the plaintiff contends 
that (1) our rules of practice required the board to 
provide the plaintiff a certified copy of the administrative 
record, (2) the court improperly acted on the defendant’s 
motion for judgment and (3) the court improperly 
concluded that Parsons was eligible for unemployment 
benefits. He also alleges a due process violation. We 
affirm the judgment of the trial court. 

The relevant facts are as follows. The plaintiff hired 
Parsons as a paralegal in November, 1999. At that time, 
Parsons asked to be paid each Friday for that week’s 
work. Although the plaintiff paid its other employees 
for work performed in the preceding week, it agreed 
to Parson’s request. That compensation arrangement 
continued over the next four years. It ended in the 
summer of 2004. 

The employment security appeals referee (referee) 
made the following findings of fact in its written decision: 
‘‘In late June or early July, 2004, the [plaintiff’s] 
bookkeeper advised [the plaintiff] to put [Parsons] on 
the same pay schedule as the other employees. . . . 
On July 6, 2004, the [plaintiff] asked [Parsons] to sign 
a document acknowledging the [plaintiff’s] right to 
change her paycheck schedule to coincide with that of 
the other employees and to authorize the [plaintiff] to 
begin paying her one week behind, effective August 
2, 2004. The document specified that [Parsons] would 
therefore not receive a paycheck on August 2, 2004. 
[Parsons] did not sign the authorization and indicated 
to the [plaintiff] that it would cause a problem with 
her finances. [Parsons] advised the [plaintiff] that she 
would think about it. . . . As of Friday, July 15, 2004, 
[Parsons] had not signed the authorization form 
because her condominium fees were coming due and 
it would have caused her financial hardship to have a 
week with no income. . . . On Friday, July 15, 2004, 
the [plaintiff] did not pay [Parsons] her weekly wages. 
. . . On July 19, 2004, [Parsons] resigned. After 
resigning, [she] received the check for the week of July 
15, 2004, in the mail.’’ 

Parsons subsequently filed a claim for unemployment 
benefits, which the defendant granted. The plaintiff 
appealed the matter to the referee, who heard Parsons’ 
claim de novo and affirmed the defendant’s determination. 
The plaintiff then appealed that determination to
the board. In its October 26, 2005 memorandum of decision, 
the board stated: ‘‘The record discloses that, at 
the time of hire, [Parsons] specifically negotiated for 
the [plaintiff] to pay her at the end of a work week, 
rather than the following week, which was the [plaintiff’s] 
usual practice. Thus . . . the [plaintiff] substantially 
changed the working conditions when it 
announced that [Parsons] would now have to wait until 
the week following a week of work to get paid for that 
week. Thus, we concur in the referee’s conclusion that 
[Parsons] had good cause attributable to the [plaintiff] 
to leave the job.Wefind that the parties have not offered 
any argument in support or in opposition to the appeal 
which would disturb the referee’s findings of fact. We 
further find that the findings are supported by the 
record and that the conclusion reached by the referee 
is consistent with those findings and the provisions 
of the Connecticut Unemployment Compensation Act. 
Accordingly, we adopt the referee’s findings of fact 
and decision.’’ 

From that judgment, the plaintiff appealed to the 
Superior Court on December 2, 2005. On February 3, 
2006, the defendant filed a motion for judgment that 
sought the dismissal of the plaintiff’s appeal. In 
response, the plaintiff filed an objection, which the 
court expressly considered and overruled. On February 
16, 2006, the plaintiff filed a ‘‘motion for default and/or 
order,’’ complaining that the defendant failed to comply 
with Practice Book § 10-12 by not providing it a certified 
copy of the record.2 On February 22, 2006, the court 
granted the defendant’s motion for judgment, dismissing 
the plaintiff’s appeal. The plaintiff filed a motion to 
reargue on March 3, 2006. In denying reargument, the 
court stated that it ‘‘fully considered the [plaintiff’s] 
arguments as stated in its objection before ruling on 
the [defendant’s] motion for judgment.’’ 

The plaintiff thereafter requested an articulation of 
the court’s judgment, which the court granted. In its 
articulation, the court stated: ‘‘The court considered all 
of the [plaintiff’s] arguments, as stated in its objection 
to the [defendant’s] motion for judgment, and resolved 
them as follows: (1) The [defendant’s] motion for judgment 
and its supporting memorandum of law were filed 
two months after a certified copy of the record had 
been filed with the court. In that time period, the [plaintiff] 
had not claimed the case for the short calendar or 
taken any other action regarding the appeal such as 
moving to correct a finding of the board within two 
weeks of the filing of the record, as required by Practice 
Book § 22-4. The motion for judgment substantially 
complied with Practice Book § 22-2 (b) and, along with 
its supporting memorandum of law, provided the [plaintiff] 
with adequate notice of the grounds of the motion 
so that the [plaintiff] could respond in a meaningful 
way . . . and the court could address the issues raised 
on this limited statutory appeal from the decision of
the board . . . . No rights of the [plaintiff] were violated 
by the [defendant’s] motion for judgment. (2) The 
[plaintiff] received adequate notice of the issues to be 
heard and decided by the referee and the board . . . 
and none of the procedures employed by the referee 
or the board in hearing and deciding the claim made by 
[Parsons] violated any of the [plaintiff’s] constitutional 
rights. (3) The board’s findings of fact were supported 
by evidence in the record, and its conclusions were not 
arbitrary, unreasonable or illegal, nor did they result 
from a misapplication of the applicable law to the facts 
found. (4) No provision of the General Statutes or the 
Practice Book requires that a copy of the record be 
provided to the [plaintiff]. The only requirement is that 
the board, not the [defendant], certify a copy of the 
record of proceedings before it to the court; General 
Statutes § 31-249b; Practice Book § 22-1 (b); and the 
board complied with that requirement on December 2, 
2005. After that date the record was available to the 
[plaintiff] for all purposes, including the filing of a 
motion to correct the record, if necessary, within two 
weeks of the filing of the record with the court.’’ This 
appeal followed. 

I 

We address first the plaintiff’s claim that our rules 
of practice required the board to provide the plaintiff 
a certified copy of the administrative record. Our review 
of that claim is plenary. See Travelers Property& Casualty 
Co. v. Christie, 99 Conn. App. 747, 757, 916 A.2d 
114 (2007). 

Practice Book § 10-12 requires counsel in civil actions 
to serve on each other party who has appeared copies 
of pleadings, written motions and papers relating to 
discovery, request, demand, claim, notice or similar 
paper. See footnote 2. Reasoning that the present appeal 
is a civil action, the plaintiff insists that Practice Book 
§ 10-12 required the board to provide it a copy of the 
administrative record. We do not agree. Significantly, 
the board is not a party to this appeal. Although the 
board may intervene in such proceedings pursuant to 
General Statutes § 31-249c, it did not do so in this case. 
As such, Practice Book § 10-12 is inapplicable. 
Chapter 22 of our rules of practice governs unemployment 
compensation proceedings in the Superior Court. 
Upon the commencement of an appeal therein, Practice 
Book § 22-1 (b), which mirrors General Statutes § 31- 
249b, requires that ‘‘the chair of the board shall cause 
to be mailed to the clerk a certified copy of the record, 
which shall consist of the notice of appeal to the referee 
and the board, the notices of hearing before them, the 
referee’s findings of fact and decision, the findings and 
decision of the board, all documents admitted into evidence 
before the referee and the board or both, and all 
other evidentiary material accepted by them.’’3 Nothing 
in the General Statutes or our rules of practice requires
the board to furnish a copy of that record to the 
plaintiff.4 

General Statutes § 31-237g provides in relevant part 
that ‘‘[t]he board shall adopt regulations . . . concerning 
the rules of procedure for the hearing and disposition 
of appeals under the provisions of this chapter. 
. . .’’ Section 31-237g-51 of the Regulations of Connecticut 
State Agencies requires the board to certify the 
administrative record in a given matter to the Superior 
Court. It further requires the board to deliver a written 
notice of certification to the parties, attorneys and 
authorized agents of record. The plaintiff received such 
notice in the present case. It was free, therefore, either 
to review the certified administrative record or to obtain 
a copy thereof. It opted not to do so. 

In essence, the plaintiff asks us to rewrite the aforementioned 
regulation and Practice Book § 22-1. We 
decline that invitation. To the contrary, we conclude 
that the board was not required to provide the plaintiff 
with a copy of the certified administrative record. 

II 

We next consider the procedural vehicle employed 
by the defendant in the present case. Two months after 
the administrative record was certified, the defendant 
filed a motion for judgment that sought the dismissal 
of the plaintiff’s appeal. The plaintiff contends that that 
motion is improper in the context of unemployment 
compensation appeals. Our review of that question of 
law is plenary. See Dept. of Social Services v. Saunders, 
247 Conn. 686, 696, 724 A.2d 1093 (1999). 

The administrative record was certified to the Superior 
Court on December 2, 2005. Practice Book § 22-2 
provides: ‘‘(a) Appeals from decisions of the employment 
security board of review are privileged with 
respect to their assignment for trial, but they shall be 
claimed for the short calendar. The judicial authority, 
however, may order the appeal placed on the administrative 
appeal trial list. (b) In any appeal in which one 
of the parties is not represented by counsel and in which 
the party taking the appeal does not claim the case for 
the short calendar or trial within a reasonable time after 
the return day, the judicial authority may of its own 
motion dismiss the appeal, or the party ready to proceed 
may move for nonsuit or default as appropriate.’’ Thus, 
the plaintiff was required to claim its appeal for the 
short calendar within a reasonable time. 

Likewise, Practice Book § 22-4 specifies that a motion 
to correct a finding of the board must be filed within 
two weeks of the certification of the record. In the 
two weeks following certification, the plaintiff neither 
claimed the appeal for the short calendar nor moved 
to correct any of the board’s findings. In fact, more 
than two months passed without any action whatsoever 
by the plaintiff. On February 3, 2006, the defendant filed
the motion for judgment. The motion maintained that 
because the board correctly determined that Parsons 
was eligible for unemployment benefits, the appeal 
should be dismissed. The issue before us is whether 
such a motion is permitted. We answer that question 
affirmatively. 

Ordinarily, administrative appeals are subject to the 
pleading and filing requirements specified in Practice 
Book § 14-7 (a). Notably, Practice Book § 14-7 (b) 
excepts unemployment compensation appeals from 
those requirements, providing that ‘‘[a]ppeals from the 
employment security board of review shall follow the 
procedure set forth in chapter 22 of these rules.’’ Practice 
Book § 22-9, entitled ‘‘Function of the Court,’’ provides 
in relevant part that unemployment compensation 
appeals ‘‘are heard by the court upon the certified copy 
of the record filed by the board. The court does not 
retry the facts or hear evidence. It considers no evidence 
other than that certified to it by the board, and 
then for the limited purpose of determining whether 
the finding should be corrected, or whether there was 
any evidence to support in law the conclusions reached. 
It cannot review the conclusions of the board when 
these depend upon the weight of the evidence and the 
credibility of witnesses. In addition to rendering judgment 
on the appeal, the court may order the board to 
remand the case to a referee for any further proceedings 
deemed necessary by the court. . . .’’ (Emphasis 
added.) Practice Book § 22-9 (a). Plainly, then, the 
court’s primary function is rendering judgment on 
the appeal. 

The plaintiff confuses the defendant’s motion for 
judgment with one for nonsuit or default due to the 
plaintiff’s failure to claim the appeal for the short calendar. 
The defendant’s motion was neither. Rather, it was 
a motion for judgment on the merits, requesting the 
court to exercise its core function in unemployment 
compensation appeals. We see no good reason, nor has 
the plaintiff demonstrated any, why a party should not 
be permitted to claim an unemployment compensation 
appeal to the short calendar on the merits, when such 
adjudication is the ultimate task of the court. Indeed, 
this procedure is commonplace in Connecticut courts.5 
Moreover, the court could not in the present case consider 
any evidence other than that certified to it by the 
board, as the two week period for filing a motion to 
correct contained in Practice Book § 22-4 had passed. 
We concur with the court’s observation that the defendant’s 
motion for judgment, along with its supporting 
memorandum of law, provided the plaintiff with adequate 
notice of the grounds of the motion so that the 
plaintiff could respond in a meaningful way. The court’s 
consideration of the defendant’s motion for judgment, 
therefore, was not improper. 

III

The plaintiff also assails the court’s determination 
on the merits. He claims that the court improperly concluded 
that Parsons was eligible for unemployment benefits. 
‘‘[R]eview of an administrative agency decision 
requires a court to determine whether there is substantial 
evidence in the administrative record to support 
the agency’s findings of basic fact and whether the 
conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable. 
. . . Neither this court nor the trial court may retry the 
case or substitute its own judgment for that of the 
administrative agency on the weight of the evidence or 
questions of fact. . . . Our ultimate duty is to determine, 
in view of all of the evidence, whether the agency, 
in issuing its order, acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, illegally 
or in abuse of its discretion.’’ (Internal quotation 
marks omitted.) Reeder v. Administrator, Unemployment 
Compensation Act, 88 Conn. App. 556, 557–58, 
869 A.2d 1288, cert. denied, 275 Conn. 918, 883 A.2d 
1245 (2005). 

The plaintiff does not quarrel with any of the factual 
findings made by the referee and adopted by the board.6 
Rather, he claims that those facts do not support the 
conclusion that Parsons was eligible for unemployment 
benefits due to good cause attributable to the plaintiff. 
We disagree. 

General Statutes § 31-236 (a) (2) (A) provides in relevant 
part that ‘‘no individual shall be ineligible for benefits 
if the individual leaves suitable work (i) for good 
cause attributable to the employer, including leaving 
as a result of changes in conditions created by the 
individual’s employer . . . .’’ Section 31-236-19 of the 
Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, entitled 
‘‘Good cause attributable to the employer,’’ states that 
‘‘[i]n determining whether an individual’s reason for 
leaving suitable work is for good cause attributable to 
the employer, the [defendant] must find that the reason 
relates to wages, hours or working conditions which 
comprise the employment that the individual voluntarily 
left.’’ Section 31-236-20 of the Regulations of Connecticut 
State Agencies further requires, in determining 
that an individual voluntarily left suitable work for good 
cause attributable to the employer, that the defendant 
must find that the employer ‘‘breached the original 
employment agreement’’ and that the individual 
‘‘expressed his dissatisfaction regarding wages to his 
employer and unsuccessfully sought a remedy through 
those means reasonably available to him before leaving 
his employment.’’ 

In its October 26, 2005 memorandum of decision, the 
board stated: ‘‘The record discloses that, at the time of 
hire, [Parsons] specifically negotiated for the [plaintiff] 
to pay her at the end of a work week, rather than 
the following week, which was the [plaintiff’s] usual 
practice. Thus . . . the [plaintiff] substantially 
changed the working conditions when it announced
that [Parsons] would now have to wait until the week 
following a week of work to get paid for that week. 
Thus, we concur in the referee’s conclusion that [Parsons] 
had good cause attributable to the [plaintiff] to 
leave the job.’’ 

The decision of the board, like that of the referee, was 
predicated on the plaintiff’s breach of the employment 
agreement it negotiated with Parsons. Further, the 
board’s findings include the fact that Parsons declined 
to sign the authorization form prepared by the plaintiff. 
Parsons informed the plaintiff that the proposed change 
to the employment agreement ‘‘would cause a problem 
with her finances’’ on July 6, 2004. The board also found 
that, ‘‘[a]s of Friday, July 15, 2004, [Parsons] had not 
signed the authorization form because her condominium 
fees were coming due, and it would have caused 
her financial hardship to have a week with no income.’’ 
Parsons ultimately decided not to sign the authorization 
form; she resigned on July 19, 2004. 

In light of the evidence contained in the certified 
administrative record, we conclude that the board did 
not act unreasonably, arbitrarily, illegally or in abuse 
of its discretion in concluding that Parsons was eligible 
for unemployment benefits. As such, the plaintiff’s 
claim fails. 

IV 

The plaintiff’s final claim is that the notice of the 
hearing before the referee violated its right to due process. 
That claim merits little discussion. The notice 
provided to the plaintiff stated in relevant part: ‘‘An 
appeal has been filed from a determination by the 
[defendant] on a claim for unemployment benefits. The 
appeal will be heard by the undersigned referee. . . . 
The hearing will cover the issue(s) and provisions of 
the law which appear on page two of this notice. . . .’’ 
The second page of the notice stated: ‘‘[Section] 31-236 
(a) (2) (A) of the General Statutes and §§ 31-236-17 
through 31-236-23 of the Regulations of Connecticut 
State Agencies. Issue: Whether [Parsons] voluntarily 
left suitable work without good cause attributable to 
the [plaintiff], including leaving due to a change in the 
conditions of employment created by the [plaintiff].’’ 
On appeal, the plaintiff alleges that it had no notice 
that whether Parsons voluntarily left work with good 
cause attributable to the plaintiff was an issue before 
the referee.7 The plaintiff states in its appellate brief 
that it ‘‘should not be held in a position to blindly enter 
a proceeding’’ unaware of the allegations asserted 
against it. We are mystified by that assertion. The notice 
that it challenges on appeal explicitly indicated that 
whether Parsons voluntarily left work with good cause 
attributable to the plaintiff was an issue to be decided 
by the referee. Accordingly, the plaintiff cannot, by any 
stretch of the imagination, maintain that the notice vio
lated its right to due process. 

Finally, we note that the plaintiff, in its reply brief, 
claims for the first time that ‘‘the Superior Court in this 
appeal further denied the plaintiff its due process rights 
by not even letting the plaintiff be heard on the merits 
of the appeal. It subjected the plaintiff to arbitrary rules 
and standards which not only do not exist as a matter 
of law, but were apparently created out of thin air so 
that only the [defendant] knows that [sic] the rules are, 
rather than the rules outlined by statute and Practice 
Book.’’ That two sentence paragraph is devoid of any 
analysis or citation to legal authority. Moreover, it is 
‘‘a well established principle that arguments cannot be 
raised for the first time in a reply brief.’’ (Internal quotation 
marks omitted.) Willow Springs Condominium 
Assn., Inc. v. Seventh BRT Development Corp., 245 
Conn. 1, 48 n.42, 717 A.2d 77 (1998). We therefore 
decline to review that claim. 

The judgment is affirmed.