Lawrence v. New Hampshire Insurance

616 A.2d 806, 29 Conn. App. 484, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 411
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedNovember 17, 1992
Docket10851
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 616 A.2d 806 (Lawrence v. New Hampshire Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lawrence v. New Hampshire Insurance, 616 A.2d 806, 29 Conn. App. 484, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 411 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Daly, J.

The defendant appeals from the judgment of the Superior Court confirming an arbitration award in favor of the plaintiff. The plaintiff cross appeals from [486]*486the trial court’s decision to confirm the arbitration award without adding interest retroactively from the date of the arbitration award to the date the trial court confirmed the award. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts are relevant to this appeal. During the academic year 1987-88, the plaintiff lived at the university she attended and her permanent residence was in Darien where her mother, Carol Lawrence, lived in an apartment. Just before the plaintiff returned home for spring break on March 25, 1988,1 she received a telephone call from her mother’s sister, Sherry O’Gata, advising her not to return to Darien. The plaintiff was instructed by her aunt to come instead to Bridgeport to the O’Gata residence where the plaintiff’s aunt lived with her husband, Baron, and their two children. After the plaintiff arrived, she was told that her mother had been hospitalized for injuries resulting from an attack by a male coworker. The plaintiff’s aunt invited her to stay at the O’Gata residence instead of returning to Darien, and the plaintiff moved into the O’Gata residence. She had her own room, and ate her meals at the O’Gata residence. She slept there and received correspondence and telephone calls there. Most of the plaintiff’s personal belongings were kept at her aunt’s house. When the plaintiff’s mother was subsequently discharged from the hospital, she moved directly into the O’Gata home. The plaintiff and her mother intended to reside permanently at the O’Gata home and had no intention of returning to Darien for fear of another attack.

The plaintiff resided continuously at the O’Gata residence until April 8, 1988. On that date, after running errands for her mother, she was injured in an automobile accident involving a 1986 Chrysler station wagon [487]*487that the plaintiff’s mother was in the process of purchasing from the estate of the plaintiff’s grandfather, Willis C. Lawrence. The driver of the motor vehicle, Robert Putzig, Jr., was at fault for the accident in which the motor vehicle hit a tree. The plaintiff was taken to Norwalk Hospital where she was treated for her resulting injuries. As a result of the collision, the plaintiff incurred medical bills of $206,507.78.

After approximately three months in the hospital, the plaintiff was able to return to the O’Gata home where she remained until late October, 1988, when she and her mother moved to Maryland. During the summer of 1989, they returned to Connecticut briefly to move their furniture out of the Darien apartment. Later that summer, they moved to Florida.

At the time of the collision, the station wagon was insured by The Hartford Insurance Company under a policy with a bodily injury limit of $100,000 per person, the total amount of which was disbursed to the plaintiff because of Putzig’s negligence. The O’Gatas were insured by the defendant under an insurance policy that covered two vehicles and afforded uninsured-underinsured motorist coverage of $500,000 per vehicle up to an aggregate total of $1,000,000. The plaintiff filed a claim against the defendant under this policy. The dispute was brought before a three person arbitration panel as provided by the insurance policy and General Statutes (Rev. to 1987) § 38-175c,2 now recodified in General Statutes § 38a-336.

[488]*488By memorandum dated March 8,1991, a majority of the arbitration panel3 found that the plaintiff was an insured under the O’Gata’s insurance policy and a resident of the O’Gata household. The plaintiff was awarded $650,000 ($750,000 less the $100,000 disbursed to the plaintiff by The Hartford Insurance Company). Subsequently, the defendant moved to vacate the arbitration award under General Statutes § 52-418. The defendant also moved for modification or correction of the award under General Statutes § 52-419. The plaintiff moved to confirm the arbitration award on April 5, 1991. The trial court denied the defendant’s motions, and confirmed the arbitration award without allowing the plaintiff to recover retroactive interest.

On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the trial court and the arbitration panel improperly concluded that the plaintiff was an insured covered by the O’Gata’s uninsured motorist insurance policy, (2) the trial court and the arbitration panel improperly concluded that the plaintiff was a resident of the O’Gata household under the insurance policy issued to Sherry and Baron O’Gata, and (3) the trial court improperly denied the defendant’s motion for correction or modification of the arbitration panel’s award because it found that the collateral source offset provisions of General [489]*489Statutes § 52-225a4 were inapplicable. The plaintiff cross appeals claiming that she was entitled to recover interest on the arbitration award from the date of the arbitration panel’s decision to the date on which the award was confirmed by the trial court.

I

In its first two claims, the defendant challenges two conclusions drawn by the arbitration panel and the trial court with regard to the coverage of the uninsured motorist insurance policy. First, the defendant argues that the plaintiff was not an insured under the O’Gata’s insurance policy. Second, the defendant maintains that [490]*490the plaintiff was not a resident of the O’Gata household whose injuries were covered by the uninsured motorist insurance policy.

Our Supreme Court has determined that the substantial evidence test is the appropriate standard for the review of factual determinations of an arbitration panel in cases, such as this, involving compulsory arbitration proceedings required by General Statutes § 38-175c. Chmielewski v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 218 Conn. 646, 656, 591 A.2d 101 (1991). The substantial evidence test in the context of arbitration requires that a court determine whether substantial evidence exists in the “record to support the [arbitration panel’s] findings of basic fact and whether the conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable. . . . Substantial evidence will be found to exist if the . . . record supplies a substantial basis of fact from which the court reasonably can infer the fact in issue.” (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 660-61 n.15.

A

We first address the defendant’s claim that the trial court abused its discretion when it determined that the arbitration panel correctly found that the plaintiff was an insured entitled to coverage under the uninsured motorist insurance policy issued to the O’Gatas. The arbitration panel and the trial court found that the plaintiff did not fall within the “owned motor vehicle” exclusion under the insurance policy.

The defendant relies on the first exception to the definition of “uninsured motor vehicle” in the insurance policy issued to the O’Gatas. This exception provides that an “uninsured motor vehicle” does not include “any vehicle or equipment . . . owned by or furnished or available for your regular use.” The defendant maintains that the station wagon involved in the accident fell within this exception despite the fact that the plain[491]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Between Rounds Franchise Corp. v. EDGR Real Estate, LLC
40 A.3d 833 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2011)
Wallenta v. Moscowitz
839 A.2d 641 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2004)
State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Kowalik, No. 557957 (Jul. 12, 2001)
2001 Conn. Super. Ct. 9475 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2001)
Carmel Homes, Inc. v. Bednar, No. Cv 99-0079393 S (Mar. 26, 2001)
2001 Conn. Super. Ct. 4317 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2001)
Paulus v. LaSala
742 A.2d 379 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 1999)
Kathryn Lucas v. General Accident Insurance Company of America
1998 Conn. Super. Ct. 13336 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1998)
Lucas v. General Accident Insurance Company
759 A.2d 156 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1998)
Schratwieser v. Hartford Casualty Insurance
692 A.2d 1283 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 1997)
Progressive Insurance Company v. Benoit, No. 538470 (Dec. 18, 1996)
1996 Conn. Super. Ct. 6935 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1996)
Paoletti v. Preferred Mutual Insurance, No. Cv95 0323820s (Nov. 1, 1995)
1995 Conn. Super. Ct. 12654 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1995)
Caciopoli v. Latella, No. Cv92 0338761 (Oct. 18, 1995)
1995 Conn. Super. Ct. 12007 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1995)
Wiley v. Great American Insurance Co., No. Cv 93-0528648s (Sep. 11, 1995)
1995 Conn. Super. Ct. 10502 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1995)
Smith v. Smith, No. Cv93-69691 S (Apr. 7, 1995)
1995 Conn. Super. Ct. 3649 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1995)
Johnson v. Aetna Casualty Surety Co., No. Cv94 0045986s (Sep. 13, 1994)
1994 Conn. Super. Ct. 9155 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1994)
Remington v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.
646 A.2d 266 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 1994)
Patron v. Konover
646 A.2d 901 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 1994)
Meola v. Peerless Insurance Co., No. Cv93-0528700s (Aug. 1, 1994)
1994 Conn. Super. Ct. 7754-HH (Connecticut Superior Court, 1994)
Meola v. Peerless Ins. Co., No. Cv93 0528700s (Jul. 26, 1994)
1994 Conn. Super. Ct. 7544 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1994)
Allstate Insurance Company v. Legendre, No. Cv93 004 1985 (Jul. 19, 1994)
1994 Conn. Super. Ct. 6850-H (Connecticut Superior Court, 1994)
Maluszewski v. Allstate Insurance
640 A.2d 129 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
616 A.2d 806, 29 Conn. App. 484, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawrence-v-new-hampshire-insurance-connappct-1992.