Connecticut Supreme Court Decisions 2011
Date: December 27, 2011
Docket Number: SC18515
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff's car was rear-ended by a tractor trailer truck owned by Defendant. Defendant admitted liability for the accident, and the jury returned with a verdict of $700,000 in damages. The trial court subsequently…
Date: December 27, 2011
Docket Number: SC18715
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of several crimes. The trial court enhanced Defendant's sentence for being a persistent dangerous felony offender in violation of Conn. Gen. Stat. 53a-40. On appeal, the…
Date: December 13, 2011
Docket Number: SC18290
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a development company, brought an action against Defendants, several entities including the City, alleging Defendants had violated the Connecticut Antitrust Act by engaging in an illegal conspiracy in…
Date: December 13, 2011
Docket Number: SC18382
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits for injuries she sustained while working for Employer. The workers' compensation commissioner awarded Plaintiff total disability benefits and reimbursement for…
Date: December 13, 2011
Docket Number: SC18746
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Anna Miller executed a promissory note to a finance company and conveyed by way of a mortgage her interest in real property to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. Defendant's mortgage was thereafter…
Date: November 29, 2011
Docket Number: SC17527
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to murder and capital felony and was sentenced to death. The case was remanded for a new penalty phase hearing, during which Defendant waived his right to have a jury determine his sentence.…
Date: November 29, 2011
Docket Number: SC18454
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of assault in the third degree and sentenced to one-year incarceration, execution suspended, and three years probation. Defendant was later arrested and charged with risk of injury to a child and,…
Date: November 29, 2011
Docket Number: SC18751
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, while in the course of employment as a uniformed police officer of the City's police department, was involved in a shooting and was later criminally charged in connection with the shooting. The City suspended…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: SC18202
Justia Opinion Summary: After Employee was diagnosed with hypertension, Employee filed a notice of claim for hypertension benefits under Conn. Gen. Stat. 7-433c(a). The workers' compensation commissioner dismissed Employee's claim as untimely…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: SC18203
Justia Opinion Summary: After Employee received numerous elevated blood pressure readings and was prescribed hypertension medication, Employee filed a notice of claim for hypertension benefits. The workers' compensation commissioner (1) found…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: SC18402
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Gary Gibson was convicted, after a jury trial, of failure to appear in the first degree. The appellate court reversed the conviction on the ground that improper statements by the prosecutor during closing…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: SC18435
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and his wife (Wife) sued Defendant for negligence and loss of consortium after Defendant's vehicle struck Plaintiff's vehicle and injured Wife. Wife subsequently withdrew her claims pursuant to a settlement…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: SC18443
Justia Opinion Summary: After a vehicle Defendant Tricia Coccomo was driving collided with another vehicle, killing all three occupants, Defendant was convicted of three counts each of manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle and…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: SC18513
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sued Defendants, the driver of a vehicle and the vehicle's owner, for negligence after the driver of the vehicle struck Plaintiff's vehicle, causing injuries to Plaintiff. Plaintiff submitted an offer of…
Date: November 8, 2011
Docket Number: SC18712
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs brought a declaratory judgment action seeking a determination that certain medical malpractice claims that they had asserted in an action against a medical association were covered under an insurance policy…
Date: November 1, 2011
Docket Number: SC18511
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant landowner applied for a zoning change to designate its parcel as a business and commercial zone and for a special exception permit for approval of the site plan of its shopping center project. The Town's…
Date: November 1, 2011
Docket Number: SC18522
Justia Opinion Summary: After a criminal trial, a jury found Defendant William McElveen to be a persistent larceny offender. Defendant was sentenced accordingly. Defendant filed a motion to modify his sentence and later appealed. The appellate…
Date: November 1, 2011
Docket Number: SC18648
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and Defendant were two sisters who held interests in a vacant lot as tenants in common. Plaintiff brought a quiet title action, claiming full ownership of the lot through adverse possession. The trial court…
Date: October 25, 2011
Docket Number: SC18479
Justia Opinion Summary: This medical malpractice case arose out of the claimed failure of Defendant, Mandell and Blau, M.D.'s, P.C., properly and promptly to diagnose Plaintiff, Brenda Sawicki, with breast cancer. The jury returned a verdict in…
Date: October 18, 2011
Docket Number: SC18267
Date: October 18, 2011
Docket Number: SC18267
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant in this case issued health care insurance policies to provide coverage for medical services and entered into contracts with practitioners of the healing arts to provide those services. Plaintiffs, three…
Date: October 18, 2011
Docket Number: SC18666
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, American Diamond Exchange, brought an action against Defendant, Jurgita Karobikaite, and her husband, Scott Alpert, after Alpert, who was working as an estate buyer for Plaintiff, diverted Plaintiff's…
Date: October 11, 2011
Docket Number: SC18718
Justia Opinion Summary: This was the first of two appeals arising from a property dispute between members of a local parish of the Episcopal church and several present or former officers or vestry members of the parish. An unincorporated…
Date: October 11, 2011
Docket Number: SC18719
Justia Opinion Summary: This was the second of two appeals arising from a property dispute between Plaintiffs, members of a local parish of the Episcopal church and the church, and Defendants, several present or former officers or vestry…
Date: October 4, 2011
Docket Number: SC18345
Justia Opinion Summary: This case centered on the scope of an implied easement located on a lawn that lay between a beachfront development and Long Island Sound. Plaintiffs owned waterfront lots in the development and Defendants owned rear…
Date: September 13, 2011
Docket Number: SC18616
Justia Opinion Summary: Following a jury trial, Defendant John Papandrea was convicted of nine counts of larceny in the first degree. The appellate court affirmed. At trial, the state claimed that Defendant stole corporate funds from his…
Date: September 6, 2011
Docket Number: SC18070
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Harry Gonzalez was convicted of felony murder, robbery in the first degree, and kidnapping in the first degree. On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court, holding (1) the…
Date: August 30, 2011
Docket Number: SC18501
Justia Opinion Summary: Employee was diagnosed with silicosis, a condition caused by work with Employer, and filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits. During the course of Employee's employment, Employer's workers' compensation…
Date: August 30, 2011
Docket Number: SC18457
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of kidnapping in the second degree and one count of risk of injury to a child. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court as to one of the two…
Date: August 30, 2011
Docket Number: SC18500
Justia Opinion Summary: Fanetta Arnold agreed to provide a guarantee in lieu of cash to satisfy the security deposit for an apartment for rent owned by Defendants, the Forvils. When Arnold attempted to move into the apartment on the agreed-upon…
Date: August 23, 2011
Docket Number: SC18487
Justia Opinion Summary: Letitia Kilby filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, claiming unlawful housing discrimination by Defendants, the town housing authority and a property management company. The Commission…
Date: August 23, 2011
Docket Number: SC18716
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of one count each of possession of narcotics, possession of a controlled substance, interfering with an officer, and tampering with physical evidence. The Supreme Court…
Date: August 23, 2011
Docket Number: SC18797
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with, inter alia, six counts of capital felony in connection with a triple murder, sexual assault, and arson. During the trial, the trial court granted the motion of intervenors, a newspaper and one…
Date: August 16, 2011
Docket Number: SC18497
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, defendant Oles Baptiste was convicted of assault of a peace officer and interfering with an officer. Defendant appealed, claiming that the trial court's jury instructions on the charges deprived him…
Date: August 16, 2011
Docket Number: SC17949
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged and convicted of murder, carrying a pistol without a permit, and criminal possession of a pistol. At trial, three witnesses who had criminal matters pending in a variety of venues testified that…
Date: August 16, 2011
Docket Number: SC18341
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company, brought a product liability action against Defendant, Deere and Company, claiming that a lawn tractor manufactured by Defendant contained a manufacturing…
Date: August 16, 2011
Docket Number: SC18426
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, landowner of property consisting in part of wetland soil, filed a petition for a declaratory ruling with the Fairfield town conservation commission, seeking a determination that certain activities, including…
Date: August 16, 2011
Docket Number: SC18488
Justia Opinion Summary: The present matter arose from three related tax appeals involving Plaintiff Goodspeed Airport's property that consisted of a commercial utility airport and forty-three acres of open fields. The superior court denied…
Date: August 9, 2011
Docket Number: SC18411
Justia Opinion Summary: After a police officer received frantic telephone calls by a concerned parent about his missing teenage son and the parent suggested that his son might be at the home of defendant Gary Ryder, the officer conducted a…
Date: August 9, 2011
Docket Number: SC18578
Justia Opinion Summary: At age fifteen, Defendant was charged with larceny in the second and fourth degrees and burglary in the third degree. Before the juvenile court, the State filed a motion to transfer the charges from the juvenile docket…
Date: August 9, 2011
Docket Number: SC18601
Justia Opinion Summary: In four decisions, Defendant, the freedom of information commission, ordered Plaintiff, a town ethics commission, to make and maintain, for three years, audio recordings of Plaintiff's executive sessions or any other…
Date: August 9, 2011
Docket Number: SC18601
Date: August 2, 2011
Docket Number: SC18496
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant Thomas W. was convicted of risk of injury to a child and sexual assault in the fourth degree. On appeal, Defendant contended that the trial court improperly diluted the State's burden of…
Date: August 2, 2011
Docket Number: SC18378
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, the commissioner of labor, applied to the superior court for a warrant to inspect the premises of Defendant, a fire company, to investigate whether the fire company was in compliance with the requirements of…
Date: August 2, 2011
Docket Number: SC18468
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, employee, brought an action against Defendants, an archdiocese and a parish pastor, claiming that their refusal to renew her contract for employment as the principal of the parish school constituted, inter…
Date: August 2, 2011
Docket Number: SC18702
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography. As a condition of probation, Defendant was required to not possess or subscribe to any sexually stimulating material deemed inappropriate by…
Date: July 26, 2011
Docket Number: SC18530
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Eric Ham was charged with six crimes, including murder. Shortly before trial, the state offered Ham a plea bargain. Ham's counsel informed Ham that, if he accepted the plea offer, he would be eligible for…
Date: July 26, 2011
Docket Number: SC18701
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jose Polanco was convicted of sale of narcotics in violation of Conn. Gen. Stat. 21a-277(a) and sale of narcotics within 1500 feet of a school in violation of Ohio Gen. Stat. 21a-278a(b). The trial court…
Date: July 26, 2011
Docket Number: SC18581
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to sexual assault in the second degree, sexual assault in the third degree, and risk of injury to a child. The Supreme Court twice remanded the case to the trial court for resentencing. At the…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18561
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Patrick Lenarz was charged with risk of injury to a child and sexual assault in the fourth degree. Before trial, the prosecutor came into possession of and read certain written materials belonging to Defendant…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18293
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant David Sheriff was charged with several drug-related offenses. Flavio Bail Bonds executed a bail bond for Sheriff on each of the cases. After Sheriff failed to appear for the trial of the three cases, Flavio…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18474
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and Defendant were former husband and wife. Following the dissolution of their marriage, Defendant was granted joint custody and visitation rights of the parties' two daughters. Defendant then reported that her…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18529
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was adjudicated a youthful offender for committing the crime of criminal trespass in the second degree. The trial court sentenced Defendant to ninety days' incarceration and a period of probation of two years.…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18544
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, John and Colm Farrell, were allegedly involved in a motor vehicle accident with an insured of Defendant, Twenty-First Century Insurance Company. Plaintiffs filed an action against Defendant, seeking damages…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18703
Justia Opinion Summary: After Defendant was charged in three criminal cases and, in a fourth case, with violating his probation, he was found incompetent to stand trial and not restorable to competency. Defendant filed a motion to dismiss the…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18717
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of carrying a pistol without a permit and criminal possession of a firearm. Defendant was found not guilty of murder, either as a principal or an accessory. The Supreme Court…
Date: July 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18732
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, George Gould and Ronald Taylor, were arrested and charged with, inter alia, murder, felony murder, and robbery in the first degree. The jury acquitted Petitioners of the murder charge but convicted them on…
Date: July 12, 2011
Docket Number: SC18704
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, defendant Wallace Brabham was convicted of burglary in the third degree and attempt to commit larceny in the first degree. Before sentencing, Defendant posted bond and fled to England. As a result,…
Date: July 12, 2011
Docket Number: SC18469
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, the administrators of Decedent's estate, brought a medical malpractice action against Defendants, a thoracic surgeon and the surgeon's employer. Plaintiffs attached to their original complaint an opinion…
Date: July 12, 2011
Docket Number: SC18524
Justia Opinion Summary: An employee of Plaintiff, the town of Southbury, was injured in a car accident with Defendants, Patricia and Joseph Gonyea, during the course of employment. Employee applied for and received workers' compensation…
Date: July 5, 2011
Docket Number: SC18410
Justia Opinion Summary: Brady Dougan and Tomoko Dougan entered into a stipulation for judgment dissolving their marriage that contained a provision ordering Brady to pay interest if he failed to make payments to Tomoko. Both of the parties…
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: SC18660
Justia Opinion Summary: The commissioner of children and families filed neglect petitions with respect to Joseph W. and Daniel W., and the trial court found the children were neglected. At the termination proceeding, the trial court found the…
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: SC18617
Justia Opinion Summary: Complainant, an attorney and private investigator, asked the town tax assessor to provide him with an exact electronic copy of the file that the department of motor vehicles had provided to the town pursuant to Conn.…
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: SC18617
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: SC18685
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: SC18686
Justia Opinion Summary: For several years, Plaintiff Housatonic Railroad Company purchased diesel fuel from a petroleum distributor that was used exclusively by Plaintiff as part of its interstate freight rail business. The distributor remitted…
Date: June 21, 2011
Docket Number: SC18282
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Calvin Long was committed to the jurisdiction of the psychiatric security review board following a finding of not guilty by reason of mental disease of assault in the second degree. The state later petitioned…
Date: June 14, 2011
Docket Number: SC18260
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2000, the manager of the Goodspeed Airport cut down trees and woody vegetation on property owned by a land trust. A total of six actions were filed as a result of the clear-cutting. In addition to instituting two of…
Date: June 7, 2011
Docket Number: SC17983
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of one count of sexual assault in the first degree and two counts of risk of injury to a child arising out of defendant's sexual abuse of his wife's son. Defendant appealed his conviction and…
Date: June 7, 2011
Docket Number: SC18433
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs sued defendants, the board of education of the town of Watertown ("board"), the town of Watertown ("town"), and two teachers employed by the board, claiming that, as a result of defendants' negligence, one…
Date: June 7, 2011
Docket Number: SC18686
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of three counts of sexual assault in the first degree and one count of risk of injury to a child where his convictions stemmed from his sexual assault of his step-granddaughter over a two year…
Date: May 31, 2011
Docket Number: SC18310
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed directly from the judgment of conviction of one count of murder in violation of General Statutes 53a-54a. On appeal, defendant claimed that the trial court, in fashioning his sentence, improperly…
Date: May 24, 2011
Docket Number: SC18439
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed from the judgment of the trial court upholding the zoning board of appeals of the city of Stamford's ("board") decision that a dock located on the waters of Stamford Harbor was a neighborhood dock…
Date: May 17, 2011
Docket Number: SC18604
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sued defendants alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. 1983 and General Statutes 7-465 when defendants terminated plaintiff from his employment as a senior field engineer in defendants' information technology…
Date: May 10, 2011
Docket Number: SC18277
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, then age sixteen, was arrested and charged with ten offenses and arraigned as a youthful offender under General Statutes 54-76c et seq. Following the arraignment, the state filed a motion to transfer…
Date: May 10, 2011
Docket Number: SC18074
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant and his wife appeal the trial court's judgment in a breach of contract and lien foreclosure action arising out of a dispute concerning the construction of a single-family home in the town of Greenwich.…
Date: May 10, 2011
Docket Number: SC18481
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed from the decision of the trial court granting the state's motion to transfer defendant's case from the youthful offender docket to the regular criminal docket pursuant to General Statutes 54-57c(b)(1).…
Date: April 26, 2011
Docket Number: SC18649
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Randall Motzer worked for Defendants Edward Haberli and E. Haberli Electric, LLC as an electrician’s apprentice. In June, 2004, he was working on a job site to help install electrical wiring through the ground…
Date: April 26, 2011
Docket Number: SC18568
Justia Opinion Summary: Bruce Bedrick appeals the trial court’s decision in favor of his wife Deborah Bedrick. Deborah filed suit seeking dissolution of her marriage in August, 2007. She sought permanent alimony, an equitable distribution of…
Date: April 26, 2011
Docket Number: SC18590
Justia Opinion Summary: On April 19, 2006, Plaintiff Gabrielle Nyenhuis, in the course of her employment as a uniformed police officer of Defendant Metropolitan District Commission (District), had an altercation with a member of the public. The…
Date: April 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18603
Justia Opinion Summary: Pro se Plaintiff-Appellant Burton sought an injunction against Defendant-Appellee Dominion Nuclear to halt operation of a power plant, claiming that the plant would cause unreasonable radioactive pollution to Long Island…
Date: April 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18593
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant sought to overturn his conviction on counts of injury to a child and sexual assault. Defendant argued that the lower court improperly considered evidence protected under clergy-penitent and professional…
Date: April 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18628
Justia Opinion Summary: The Appellee-Petitioner, Commissioner of Children and Families, sought to terminate the parental rights of Respondent-Father to his child, Samantha S. After trial began, Respondent entered into an agreement to terminate…
Date: April 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18417
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff-Appellant Alexandre was selected for a tax audit by Defendant, to cover the period October, 1999 to March, 2005. In preparation, Plaintiff pulled ledgers, bank statements, and "z reports" or summary cash…
Date: April 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18650
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court considered an appeal from Plaintiff-Appellee Connecticut Motor Cars in which the lower court found that a licensed car dealer or repairer is not entitled to a "gate fee" when it moves a wrecked or disabled…
Date: April 19, 2011
Docket Number: SC18296
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff HVC Inc. was a trustee of the Honda Lease Trust. During the audit period at issue, several car dealerships entered into thousands of leases with customers (lessees) pursuant to lease plan agreements between the…
Date: April 12, 2011
Docket Number: SC18470
Justia Opinion Summary: The Town's building officials refused to issue permits to Plaintiff-Appellant Levine for two dwelling units Plaintiff wanted to build on his property. Plaintiff sued for permission to build but lost at trial and…
Date: March 15, 2011
Docket Number: SC18377
Justia Opinion Summary: These two consolidated appeals arose from the collision of two city fire trucks. As a result of the collision, firefighter John Keane died, and firefighter William Mahoney suffered serious injuries. Monica Keane brought…
Date: March 8, 2011
Docket Number: SC17976
Date: March 8, 2011
Docket Number: SC17976
Date: February 22, 2011
Docket Numbers: SC18566, SC18567
Date: February 22, 2011
Docket Numbers: SC18566, SC18567
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