PALMER, J. The defendant, Arnold Bell, was convicted, following a jury trial, of assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes 53a-59 (a)(5), carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes (Rev. to 2001) 29-35(a), and criminal possession of a pistol in violation of General Statutes (Rev. to 2001) 53a-217c (a)(1). After further findings by the jury on a second part of the information and a subsequent hearing by the court, the trial court enhanced the...
McLACHLAN, J. In this certified appeal, we must examine the delicate balance between two of the most basic principles of our law: the constitutional right of litigants to have the jury determine the amount of damages awarded; and the trial court's broad authority to supervise the trial process. The defendant Ribeiro Trucking, LLC, 1 appeals from the judgment of the Appellate Court, 2 which reversed the judgment of the trial court granting the defendant's motion for remittitur pursuant to...
PALMER, J. The plaintiff, Bridgeport Harbour Place I, LLC, brought this action against the defendants, Joseph P. Ganim, the city of Bridgeport (city), Alfred Lenoci, Sr., Alfred Lenoci, Jr., United Properties, Ltd., Eight Hundred Fifteen Lafayette Centre, LLC, United Investments, LLC, United Environmental Redevelopment, LLC, Crescent Avenue Development Company, LLC, Charles J. Willinger, Jr., Willinger, Willinger and Bucci, P.C., Joseph T. Kasper, Jr., Kasper Group, Inc., and Michael Schinella,...
HARPER, J. This appeal requires us to determine whether the trial court properly struck from the record as a sanction for a discovery violation an offer of compromise that had not been accepted within the statutory period under General Statutes 52-192a. The plaintiff, Donna Yeager, 1 appeals 2 from the judgment of the trial court, challenging its decisions granting the pretrial motion of the defendants, Maria Alvarez and Benito Alvarez, 3 to strike the offer of compromise and denying the...
PER CURIAM. The defendant, William McElveen appeals, upon our grant of his petition for certification, 1 from the judgment of the Appellate Court dismissing his appeal as moot. State v. McElveen, 117 Conn.App. 486 , 493, 979 A.2d 604 (2009). The Appellate Court determined that the trial court's grant of the defendant's motion to modify his sentence and its vacation of the defendant's sentence enhancement for being a persistent larceny offender, 2 while his appeal was pending before the...
PALMER, J. The defendant Jurgita Karobkaite 1 appeals 2 from the judgment of the trial court, following a remand from the Appellate Court; see American Diamond Exchange, Inc. v. Alpert, 101 Conn.App. 83 , 920 A.2d 357 , cert. denied, 284 Conn. 901 , 931 A.2d 261 (2007); for a recalculation of damages based on the existing record. On remand, the trial court awarded $103,355.68 in damages to the plaintiff, American Diamond Exchange, Inc., for tortious interference with its business...
McLACHLAN, J. The plaintiff podiatrists, Jeffrey F. Yale, Anthony R. Iorio, and R. Daniel Davis (individual podiatrists), and the named plaintiff, the Connecticut Podiatric Medical Association (association), appeal 1 from the grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant, Health Net of Connecticut, Inc. The plaintiffs argue that the trial court improperly concluded that, as a matter of law, the defendant's practice of reimbursing the individual podiatrists at a lower rate than medical...
ROGERS, C.J. The issues presented by these appeals and cross appeals center on the scope of an implied easement located on a lawn that lies between a beachfront development and Long Island Sound (sound) in the town of Branford. The defendants 1 appeal from the judgments rendered by the trial court concluding that the implied easement over the lawn in favor of the defendants conferred only a right-of-way to access the shoreline. The defendants claim on appeal that the trial court improperly: (...
ZARELLA, J. This appeal 1 arises from a product liability action brought by the plaintiff, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company, against the named defendant, Deere and Company, 2 in which the plaintiff claimed that a lawn tractor manufactured by the defendant contained a manufacturing defect in its electrical system that caused a fire resulting in the destruction of the home of the plaintiff's insureds. The defendant appeals from the judgment of the trial court rendered in...
EVELEIGH, J. This appeal 1 arises from a medical malpractice action brought by the plaintiffs, Winston Morgan and Edna Morgan, the administrators of the estate of Una B. Morgan (decedent), against the defendants Robert Lowe, a thoracic surgeon with a subspecialty in vascular surgery, and Lowe's employer, Connecticut Surgical Group, P.C. (Connecticut Surgical Group). 2 On appeal to this court, the plaintiffs assert that the trial court improperly dismissed their complaint on the ground...
PER CURIAM. The sole issue in this appeal 1 is whether General Statutes 53a-35b, which defines a sentence of life imprisonment as a term of sixty years, applies to the sentence of the petitioner, Richard Ostroski, who committed the offense prior to July 1, 1981, the effective date of 53a-35b, but was sentenced after that date. The petitioner contends that the habeas court improperly rejected his challenge to his indeterminate sentence on the basis of that court's conclusion that the...
EVELEIGH, J. In this certified appeal, 1 the plaintiff, Brady Dougan, appeals from the judgment of the Appellate Court reversing the judgment of the trial court that invalidated a financial order included in the stipulated judgment dissolving his marriage to the defendant, Tomoko Hamada Dougan. Dougan v. Dougan, 114 Conn.App. 379 , 380-83, 970 A.2d 131 (2009). On appeal to this court, the plaintiff claims that the Appellate Court improperly concluded that the provision in a stipulated...
ROGERS, C.J. The primary issue in this certified appeal is whether a noncustodial parent is entitled to contest a neglect petition. We answer that question in the affirmative. The respondent mother, Karin H., and the respondent father, Joseph W., are the parents of Joseph W., Jr., and Daniel W. (children). The petitioner, the commissioner of children and families (commissioner), filed neglect petitions with respect to both children. At the hearing on the petitions, the mother pleaded nolo...
ZARELLA, J. The sole issue in these appeals is whether General Statutes 1-217, 1 which prohibits public agencies from disclosing, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (act); General Statutes 1-200 et seq.; the home addresses of various federal, state and local government officials and employees, is applicable to grand lists of motor vehicles 2 and their component data provided to town assessors by the department of motor vehicles (department) pursuant to General Statutes (Rev....
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), appeal 1 from the trial court's summary judgments in...
ROGERS, C.J. The plaintiff, Joe Markley, an electric utility ratepayer, appeals from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his action against the defendants, the state department of public utility control (department) and its chairman, Kevin Del-Gobbo. 1 The plaintiff claims that the trial court improperly concluded that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the action because: (1) the plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with the department; and (2) his claims...
PER CURIAM. In 1998, the petitioner, Jeffrey Riddick, was convicted of one count each of murder in violation of General Statutes 53a-54a and risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes 53-21. He was sentenced to a total effective sentence of sixty-three years incarceration, and his conviction was affirmed on direct appeal. See State v. Riddick, 61 Conn.App. 275 , 277, 763 A.2d 1062, cert. denied, 255 Conn. 946, 769 A.2d 61 (2001). In 2001, the petitioner, in a self-...
PALMER, J. Under 42 U.S.C. 1988(b), 1 a trial court, in its discretion, may award attorney's fees to the prevailing defendant in an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983 2 if the court finds that the action was "frivolous, unreasonable or groundless, or that the plaintiff continued to litigate it after it clearly became so." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5 , 14-15, 101 S.Ct. 173, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980). The plaintiff, Siriwat Singhaviroj, appeals 3...
NORCOTT, J. This appeal presents several significant issues with respect to the application of General Statutes (Rev. to 2009) 53-39a, 1 which "authorizes indemnification for economic loss, including legal fees, incurred by officers of local police departments who are prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed by them in the course of their duties when the charges against them are dismissed or they are found not guilty." Cislo v. Shelton, 240 Conn. 590 , 598, 692 A.2d 1255 (1997). The...
McLACHLAN, J. This appeal involves a dissolution of marriage action in which the defendant, Bruce L. Bedrick, seeks to enforce a postnuptial agreement. 1 Today we are presented for the first time with the issue of whether a postnuptial agreement is valid and enforceable in Connecticut. The defendant appeals from the trial court's judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Deborah Bedrick. The defendant claims that the trial court improperly relied upon principles of fairness and equity in...
