Starting/Stopping services causes "init: Error while reading from descriptor: Bad file descriptor"

Starting and stopping services via upstart causes errors in the form of
"init: Error while reading from descriptor: Bad file descriptor"

with a lot of services and on multiple machines featuring different hardware configurations and different kernels.

The services start without errors if launched with the same parameters from the command line.

A result of this is the inability to launch lightdm.
The system becomes near unuseable.

Ubuntu version is 14.04.01
upstart package is up to date.
---
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.4
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-09-24 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
Package: upstart 1.12.1-0ubuntu4.2
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcKernelCmdline: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-36-generic root=UUID=bf38ba9e-6c63-4201-a95c-11de8e46230d ro rootflags=subvol=@ quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-36.63-generic 3.13.11.6
Tags: trusty
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-36-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UpstartBugCategory: System
UpstartRunningSystemVersion: init (upstart 1.12.1)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True
modified.conffile..etc.NetworkManager.NetworkManager.conf: [modified]
modified.conffile..etc.default.cups: [modified]
modified.conffile..etc.default.sssd: [modified]
modified.conffile..etc.init.sssd.conf: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.NetworkManager.NetworkManager.conf: 2014-09-24T19:29:37.599417
mtime.conffile..etc.default.cups: 2014-07-23T01:11:06
mtime.conffile..etc.default.sssd: 2014-09-24T20:11:37.806020
mtime.conffile..etc.init.sssd.conf: 2014-09-24T21:19:27.573144