Mayor’s brother suing town over medical benefits

EAST HAVEN — Albert Carfora, a retired first responder and the older brother of Mayor Joseph Carfora, is suing the town over medical benefits that he claims are owed to his current wife as part of his pension plan.

After a 10-year career as a town firefighter, Albert Carfora retired from the East Haven Fire Department in 1997 as a result of disabling injury incurred in the line of duty, according to the lawsuit, filed March 3 in New Haven Superior Court.

Because Carfora retired in this manner, the town was required to provide him with the same insurance and medical coverage that it does for active employees, a copy of his firefighter contract provided to Hearst Connecticut Media shows. The contract also stipulated that the town must provide Carfora’s spouse and eligible dependents with that same coverage, although it did not indicate insurance eligibility for future spouses.

Once Carfora or his wife reached 65, the town must offer the Blue Cross Blue Shield supplement to Medicare in place of the previous policy, the contract states. Carfora’s wife would be covered under the complimentary plan until “remarriage, death or divorce,” and dependents would be covered until they became ineligible, according to the contract.

Court records show that Carfora and his ex-wife, Jeanine Carfora, divorced in 2013, disqualifying her from receiving medical insurance from the town.

Carfora married his current wife, Carolyn Rossi-Carfora, in May 2021, per the lawsuit. The next month, Carfora requested that the town initiate medical insurance coverage for his wife, as outlined in his contract with the EHFD at the time of his retirement, the lawsuit states.

But according to the suit, East Haven Mayor Joseph Carfora subsequently asked his brother Albert Carfora to hold off requesting coverage for his wife until after the November 2021 election, in which the mayor was seeking a second consecutive term. He easily won reelection.

Then, in January 2022, Albert Carfora’s attorney wrote to East Haven’s benefits risk manager asking for Rossi-Carfora to be enrolled in the town’s medical insurance plan, the lawsuit states. Following the request, an attorney for the town contacted Albert Carfora’s counsel and informed them that “it was the town’s position that Ms. RossiCarfora was ineligible for coverage,” legal documents show. The town’s attorney said he would follow up with Albert Carfora’s lawyer on the matter, but never did, according to the documents.

Carfora, a standout basketball player for East Haven High School and Quinnipiac University who was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, claims in the suit that the town’s failure to provide medical insurance for his current wife “constitutes a breach” of his firefighter contract. He is seeking $15,000 in compensatory damages, along with other associated costs.

Whether Carfora’s contract specified coverage eligibility for future spouses at the time he retired is a “central issue to the case,” Nicole Shepter of The Law Office of Nicole Shepter LLC, Carfora’s attorney, said Wednesday. “That will be a question for the court to determine.”

Shepter said she did not know why Mayor Carfora asked his brother to postpone requesting insurance for his wife until after the election. “That’s one of the big questions that I have as well,” she added.

Mayor Carfora, who normally does not comment on pending litigation, said he had “no choice” but to address his brother’s “baseless” lawsuit.

“On a daily basis we all face both personal and professional decisions. In most cases they are separate – rarely do they interconnect, but on this occasion for me, and for my family, they do,” Mayor Carfora said in a statement. “My brother Al, a 10-year firefighter who retired in 1997, when he was granted a disability pension by the State-sponsored pension plan that our Town participates in, now seeks full medical benefits for his second wife.

“My brother was not married to this woman in 1997 when he was granted a disability pension by the State pension plan for East Haven employees,” the mayor continued. “Instead, he married her two years ago. His new wife is significantly younger than my brother thereby compounding our Town’s financial exposure for the medical benefits my brother unjustly seeks. The financial exposure is for the cost of our plan for his new wife from now at the age of 41 until she reaches Medicare age, and then the cost of an expensive Medicare supplemental plan for the remainder of her life.

“We have denied my brother’s request, and as a result he has decided to sue East Haven,” Carfora added. “As Mayor, I am disgusted and embarrassed for our Town. As a brother, I am saddened and embarrassed for the entire Carfora family. I have instructed our legal team to aggressively defend this matter, and to seek any and all remedies that the Town is entitled to for this baseless lawsuit.”

Attorney Dave Ryan of Ryan & Ryan LLC, who is representing the town in the legal matter, said that the case is “difficult for the Mayor on a personal level,” but that the firm stance he has taken on the issue is unsurprising given how deeply he cares about East Haven.

“In all our cases we defend with the proper aggression and this case will be no different,” Ryan added. “The Town is moving forward on solid legal grounds, and this will become clear as the case develops.”