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JAMES VENTRES ET AL. v. GOODSPEED AIRPORT, LLC, ET AL. GOODSPEED AIRPORT, LLC, ET AL. v. INLAND WETLANDS AND WATERCOURSES COMMISSION OF THE TOWN OF EAST HADDAM ET AL. GOODSPEED AIRPORT, LLC, ET AL. v. EAST HADDAM LAND TRUST, INC., ET AL. (SC 18260)
Rogers, C. J., and Norcott, Palmer, Zarella, McLachlan and Eveleigh, Js. Argued February 17--officially released June 14, 2011

Dean M. Cordiano, with whom were John R. Bashaw, Rene A. Ortega and, on the brief, Daniel J. Foster, for the appellants (Goodspeed Airport, LLC, et al.). Kenneth J. McDonnell and Alexandria L. Voccio, with whom, on the brief, was John J. Radshaw III, for the appellees (James Ventres et al.).

Opinion

McLACHLAN, J. This appeal, which arises from the clear-cutting of trees on land abutting the Goodspeed Airport in the town of East Haddam, illustrates the importance of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel in safeguarding the principles of the finality of judgments and judicial economy. Goodspeed Airport, LLC (airport), Timothy Mellon and Timothy Evans, doing business as Evans Contracting (collectively, airport parties), appeal1 from the trial court's summary judgments in favor of the inland wetlands and watercourses commission (commission) of the town of East Haddam (town), James Ventres, the town's zoning enforcement officer, and Randolph Dill, John Gibson, Bryan Goff, Nancy McHone, Wendy Goodfriend and Mary Augustiny, all individual members of the commission, in the three consolidated cases that are at issue in this appeal.2 The airport parties claim that the trial court improperly concluded that their claims for violations of their rights to substantive and procedural due process, retaliation for the exercise of their first amendment rights and abuse of process were barred by the doctrines of res judicata or collateral estoppel.3 Because we conclude that all of the claims raised by the airport parties in this appeal are barred by either the doctrine of collateral estoppel or the doctrine of res judicata, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. We set forth the relevant facts in Ventres v. Goodspeed Airport, LLC, 275 Conn. 105, 881 A.2d 937 (2005), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1111, 126 S. Ct. 1913, 164 L. Ed. 2d 664 (2006). ``The airport is located on Lumberyard Road in [the town]. It is an `[a]irport available for public use' within the meaning of title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations,

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Connecticut Law