Supreme Court of Connecticut

Hull v. Newtown

December 26, 2017

Summary

The court affirmed summary judgment for the town, holding that the police had no ministerial duty to search a person taken into custody for emergency psychiatric evaluation under the arrest or prisoner-transportation policies. The court interpreted both policies as applying to criminal custody and concluded that the civil mental-health custody authorized by General Statutes § 17a-503 (a) was materially different. Because no mandatory search duty existed, governmental immunity barred the negligence claim.