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GAJEWSKI v. PAVELO6/28/1994
an appellate court will presume that the jury found every issue in favor of the prevailing party. See, e.g., Curry v. Burns, 225 Conn. 782, 786, 626 A.2d 719 (1993); Stone v. Bastarache, 188 Conn. 201, 204, 449 A.2d 142 (1982). The Appellate Court concluded that the general verdict rule applied because the defendants had denied the plaintiffs' cause of action and pleaded special defenses, and because the plaintiffs' failure to object to jury deliberation without interrogatories was the functional equivalent of a failure to request interrogatories. Gajewski v. Pavelo, supra, 32 Conn. App. 381-82. In interpreting the verdict, the Appellate Court reasoned: "the jury could have found for the defendants because it either concluded that no one of the defendants was the proximate cause of the plaintiffs' injuries or that the plaintiffs were contributorily negligent in excess of 50 percent in the actions grounded in negligence or that the
comparative responsibility provisions of General Statutes 52-572o were inapplicable because the plaintiffs were totally responsible for their injuries." Id., 383. Applying the general verdict rule, the Appellate Court concluded that the verdict for each defendant need not be disturbed and that, therefore, it was not necessary to reach the other claims of error relating to the jury charge. Id., 383. This appeal followed.
The plaintiffs claim that the general verdict rule does not apply in the circumstances of this case because the jury stated the basis for its verdict, just as if an appropriate interrogatory had been posed. We agree.
Under the general verdict rule, "if a jury renders a general verdict for one party, and no party requests interrogatories, an appellate court will presume that the jury found every issue in favor of the prevailing party." Curry v. Burns, supra, 225 Conn. 786. Thus, in a case in which the general verdict rule operates, if any ground for the verdict is proper, the verdict must stand; only if every ground is improper does the verdict fall. Staudinger v. Barrett, 208 Conn. 94, 100, 544 A.2d 164 (1988); LaFleur v. Farmington River Power Co., 187 Conn. 339, 342, 445 A.2d 924 (1982); Colucci v. Pinette, 185 Conn. 483, 490, 441 A.2d 574 (1981). The rule rests on the policy of the conservation of judicial resources, at both the appellate and trial levels. "On the appellate level, the rule relieves an appellate court from the necessity of adjudicating claims of error that may not arise from the actual source of the jury verdict that is under appellate review. . . . In the trial court, the rule relieves the judicial system from the necessity of affording a second trial if the result of the first trial potentially did not depend upon the trial errors claimed by the appellant." Curry v. Burns, supra, 790.
The Appellate Court correctly recognized that this case presented more than one potential basis for a verdict in favor of the defendants. A verdict for the defendants could theoretically have been reached if, for instance, the defendants had not caused the plaintiffs' injuries, or the defendants had caused the injuries but the plaintiffs were 100 percent comparatively negligent. Nevertheless, we need not guess at the basis of the jury's verdict because the jury specified the basis in the verdict itself. The handwritten verdict stated: "We, the jury, based upon the evidence presented to us, unanimously agree that all claims against the defendants . . . are inconclusive. We therefore find them not liable for the injuries sustained in the suit brought by the Gajewski family." (Emphasis added.)
The plaintiffs correctly contend that this verdict signifies that the plaintiffs failed to meet thei
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