A Look Back at Justice David Borden's Career

The original vision of this article was to analyze the late Justice David Borden’s most influential opinions during his tenure on the Connecticut Supreme Court. “The 10 Most Important Opinions Authored by Justice David Borden,” the article would have been called had it been written. That is until I discovered that Borden penned more than 350 majority opinions for the Supreme Court, 25 or so of those opinions involving issues of family law. While re-reading some of his family law opinions, it became apparent that some of the most important decisions regarding a child’s right to be heard and to be represented by an attorney, or to be heard through a guardian ad litem, in cases involving the child’s custody, care or support, bear Borden’s byline.

The crown jewel of these decisions, Carrubba v. Moskowitz, held that as quasi-judicial officers, attorneys appointed to represent a child in the child’s parents’ divorce pursuant to C.G.S. §46b-54 enjoy absolute immunity from lawsuits premised on the AMC’s duties in his or her representative capacity, a protection that had previously been only available to guardians ad litem. After Carrubba, a parent cannot bring suit against their child’s attorney or guardian ad litem for claims purportedly arising during the attorney’s or guardian’s appointment. Borden, who passed away on Aug. 7, did not simply sit on a family law case and pronounce that AMCs and GALs are entitled to absolute immunity but, rather, Carrubba represents the culmination of more than a decade and a half of his expansion of the court’s protection of Connecticut’s children.