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Krevis v. City of Bridgeport12/9/2003
This appeal appears before this court after remand from the Supreme Court. The sole issue is whether the trial court properly granted the motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant, the city of Bridgeport.
The background facts have been set forth in Krevis v. Bridgeport, 64 Conn. App. 176, 177-79, 779 A.2d 838 (2001), rev'd, 262 Conn. 813, 817 A.2d 628 (2003). The facts relevant to this appeal are as follows. After jury selection but prior to trial, the court heard oral argument on the defendant's motion in limine to exclude evidence relating to punitive damages. During the argument on the motion, the plaintiff, Joseph R. Krevis, referred to the statute that abrogates governmental immunity, General Statutes § 52-557n, but did not mention the actual citation for the statute.
Among the plaintiff's references to the statute was his mention of Williams v. New Haven, 243 Conn. 763, 707 A.2d 1251 (1998), which discussed § 52-557n. The plaintiff specifically referred the court and the defendant to Justice Berdon's concurrence, which addressed § 52-557n. The plaintiff also stated that "as I understand it, is with reference to the governmental immunity statute, which is § 52-572n, I believe it is in there, there's the section that you talk about a city is not liable for intentional and wilful acts of misconduct of an employee." In addition, on several occasions during the argument, the plaintiff referred to a governmental immunity statute that would allow a negligence action against a municipality.
Concerning the motion in limine, the court ruled orally that governmental immunity precluded the plaintiff from recovering punitive damages. After considerable discussion between the court, the plaintiff and the defendant, the court allowed the defendant to make an oral motion for summary judgment. The basis of the defendant's motion for summary judgment was whether the plaintiff's claims were barred by governmental immunity. The court "found governmental immunity applicable to all counts and dismissed the actions." Krevis v. Bridgeport, supra, 64 Conn. App. 179. The court held that the plaintiff failed to follow the procedures set forth in General Statutes § 7-465, which would have required the plaintiff to bring an action against the individual and then bring an action against the municipality for indemnification.
After the plaintiff appealed to this court, we determined that it was improper for the trial court to have heard the motion for summary judgment. Krevis v. Bridgeport, supra, 64 Conn. App. 179. That decision was reversed by our Supreme Court in Krevis v. Bridgeport, 262 Conn. 813, 817 A.2d 628 (2003). The case was remanded to this court for a determination on the merits of the plaintiff's appeal. Id., 825.
We exercise plenary review over a trial court's decision to grant a motion for summary judgment. Stokes v. Lyddy, 75 Conn. App. 252, 257, 815 A.2d 263 (2003). "Pursuant to Practice Book § 17-49, summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. . . . A material fact is a fact which will make a difference in the result of the case." (Citation omitted; emphasis in original; internal quotations marks omitted.) Stokes v. Lyddy, supra, 257.
During the course of appellate litigation of this case, we decided Spears v. Garcia, 66 Conn. App. 669, 785 A.2d 1181 (2001), aff'd, 263 Conn. 22, 818 A.2d 37 (2003). In Spears, we held that "although a plaintiff should plead a statute in a complaint that abrogates governmental immunity, failing to do so will
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