Could Connecticut agencies treat an outpatient’s private trustee account as an institutional activity fund?

Plain-English summary

In June 1995, Connecticut’s AG addressed whether the Departments of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Children and Family Services could classify trustee accounts held for outpatients as “activity funds.” The statute allowed state educational, welfare or medical institutions to establish such funds, with comptroller approval, for institutional activities benefiting employees, students or patients. The AG concluded that individually owned outpatient accounts did not fit.

He relied on an earlier opinion reading activity funds, including hospital patient funds, as serving the institution’s general population rather than selected people or groups. The outpatient accounts were private funds for particular clients and were funded by those individuals. The opinion rejected their operation under the activity-fund statute; it did not address every possible legal basis for holding a client’s money.

Human services and comptroller staff at the time

The opinion distinguished an institution-wide fund from an account owned by one outpatient. Comptroller approval under the activity-fund provision could not turn the latter into the former.

Outpatients at the time

The AG treated their trustee accounts as private accounts, outside the statute governing institutional activity funds.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1995. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Could a state agency label an outpatient’s personal account an activity fund?
A: No. The AG said the activity-fund statute did not encompass private accounts for particular clients.

Q: Did the statute cover any kind of patient fund?
A: Yes, it mentioned patient funds in state hospitals, but the AG read those as funds for the institution’s patient population rather than individual private accounts.

Q: Did the opinion decide that agencies could never hold outpatient funds?
A: No. It decided only that the cited activity-fund provisions did not authorize these trustee accounts.

Background and statutory framework

The AG read the activity fund definition in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52 together with the establishment procedure in § 4-53. He applied an earlier office interpretation requiring a general institutional benefit.

Citations and references

Statutes: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52; Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-53.

Source

• Landing page: https://portal.ct.gov/AG/Opinions
• Opinion page: https://portal.ct.gov/ag/opinions/1995-formal-opinions/the-honorable-nancy-wyman-comptroller-1995019-formal-opinion-attorney-general-of-connecticut

Original opinion text

The Honorable Nancy Wyman, Comptroller, 1995-019 Formal Opinion, Attorney General of Connecticut

Attorney General's Opinion

Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal

June 14, 1995

The Honorable Nancy Wyman

Comptroller

55 Elm Street

Hartford, Connecticut 06106

Dear Ms. Wyman:

This is in response to your predecessor, William E. Curry's request for an opinion inquiring whether the Departments of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Children and Family Services may operate trustee accounts for their outpatient clients as activity funds pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52, et seq. Activity funds are sums administered by a state (i.e., public) educational, welfare or medical institution for use in connection with recreational and social activities and the like. They function as an integral part of the institution's efforts to promote the well-being of its employees, students and/or patients. For the following reasons it is our opinion that the afore-mentioned Departments may not operate trustee accounts as activity funds.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-53 provides for the establishment of "activity funds" as follows:

The administrative head of any such institution may, with the approval of the comptroller and in accordance with procedures prescribed by the comptroller, establish one or more activity funds....

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52, in turn, defines "activity fund" to mean:

[A]ny fund operated in any state educational, welfare or medical institution for the benefit of the employees or students of such institutions, including so-called patients' funds in state hospitals, the revenue of which is derived from the operation of canteens, vending machines, dramatics, recitals, student activity fees, membership fees, deposits or any other legal source compatible with the good government of such institutions.

As this Office previously opined, activity funds, including patients' funds, are intended for the general, institution-wide benefit of all employees, students and/or patients, and not for specific sub-groups or individuals within the institution. See Op. Atty. Gen. 91-008 (March 1, 1991). In the March 1, 1991 Opinion, we determined that the University of Connecticut Health Center's Academic Enhancement Fund, which benefited certain groups of faculty members, could not constitute an activity fund because it did not benefit the Health Center's employees, students or faculty as a whole. Similarly, nothing in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52, et seq., or the corresponding legislative history suggests that activity funds can include private accounts owned by individual patients. Such accounts are not only established for specific individuals, rather than for the benefit of the general institution population, but are funded by the individuals themselves, rather than by the types of sources contemplated in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52. Thus, these private trustee accounts cannot constitute activity funds, and the Departments of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Children and Family Services cannot operate them on behalf of their outpatient clients under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-52, et seq.

Very truly yours,

Richard Blumenthal

Attorney General

Christopher L. Levesque

Assistant Attorney General

RB/CLL/rj