Earl H. Webster v. Louis A. Perrotta; Stephen J. Riccitelli v. Louis A. Perrotta; Vincent J. Ferrante…

Summary

The court held that the default judgments established only the town's liability on the well-pleaded allegations and could not award relief beyond those allegations or the governing law. For three plaintiffs, the applicable statute and collective-bargaining provision entitled them to compensation only through their voluntary retirements; the fourth plaintiff's judgment was unsupported by his complaint and was void. The court also upheld the denial of prejudgment interest because the statutory compensation involved a governmental function. Justice Flanders, dissenting, would have treated the judgments as discovery sanctions capable of awarding the specified damages, enforced the collective-bargaining theory, and awarded prejudgment interest.