Stevenson v. Peerless Industries, Inc.

806 A.2d 567, 72 Conn. App. 601, 2002 Conn. App. LEXIS 505
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedOctober 1, 2002
DocketAC 22326
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 806 A.2d 567 (Stevenson v. Peerless Industries, Inc.) 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
Stevenson v. Peerless Industries, Inc., 806 A.2d 567, 72 Conn. App. 601, 2002 Conn. App. LEXIS 505 (Colo. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

Opinion

DRANGINIS, J.

The plaintiffs, George Stevenson and Euganna P. Stevenson,1 appeal from the judgment rendered by the trial court following the granting of the motion to dismiss that was filed by the defendants Peer[603]*603less Industries, Inc., and Peerless Sales Company (Peerless).2 The issue presented is whether the court properly determined that the plaintiff could not bring this action under the accidental failure of suit statute, General Statutes § 52-592. We conclude that the court improperly decided that the plaintiff could not avail himself of § 52-592 and, accordingly, reverse the judgment of the trial court in part.

The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of the plaintiffs appeal. In 1996, while taking a break in the employees’ lounge of the automobile parts store in Hartford where he worked, the plaintiff was injured when a wall mounted television fell on him. The plaintiff filed an action on August 8, 1998, against Peerless and Barr, Inc. (Barr), alleging, in pertinent part, that Peerless had negligently manufactured, designed and constructed the stand that held the television, and that Barr negligently and improperly had attached the television stand’s brackets to the wall. At the time that the action was filed, the plaintiff had relocated from Connecticut and was, and continues to be, a resident of the state of Pennsylvania.

In November, 1998, Peerless filed a request to revise the complaint. The plaintiff failed to respond to the request to revise. In December, 1998, Peerless sent discovery requests to the plaintiff, which the plaintiff also failed to answer. Pursuant to Practice Book § 14-3, Peerless accordingly filed a motion for a judgment of nonsuit for failure to comply with discovery requests, which the court granted July 8, 1999. The plaintiff did not respond to the motion for a judgment of nonsuit, nor did he attempt to open the judgment.3 Barr separately [604]*604pursued similar actions and also obtained a judgment of nonsuit.

The plaintiff commenced a second action on July 6, 2000 setting forth the identical allegations and claims, with the exception of adding another section that invoked § 52-592.4 The complaint was served on Peerless and on Barr. In bringing his action pursuant to the accidental failure of suit statute, the plaintiff alleged that he had not received notice of the entry of nonsuit. Peerless filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the plaintiff could not avail himself of the accidental failure of suit statute because his failure to prosecute the case diligently was not due to mere mistake, inadvertence or excusable neglect. Raising the same argument, Barr also filed a separate motion to dismiss the plaintiffs complaint.

In opposition to the motions to dismiss, the plaintiff contended that he had failed to respond to the discovery requests due to miscommunication with one of his attorneys, who practiced in Pennsylvania and had been retained to handle the plaintiffs workers’ compensation claim. The plaintiff argued that he could not comply adequately with the discovery requests without receiving certain documents and assistance from Pennsylvania counsel. The plaintiff attached copies of facsimiles [605]*605that he had sent to Pennsylvania counsel seeking assistance to comply with discovery. Apparently, Pennsylvania counsel misunderstood the time frame for answering discoveiy requests in Connecticut. The plaintiff also argued that once he received the answers to the discoveiy requests from Pennsylvania counsel, counsel’s secretary failed to recognize them as such and failed to prepare a motion to open the judgment, as instructed. Moreover, the plaintiff claimed that the mistakes that occurred in pursuing his case did not constitute “egregious conduct” and that he therefore was entitled to avail himself of the accidental failure of suit statute.5

The court, McLachlan, J., granted Barr’s motion to dismiss on December 18, 2000. In dismissing the plaintiffs case, the court concluded that “[c]ounsel’s failure to respond to the discovery requests was not caused by mistake, excusable neglect or inadvertence. It was caused by inaction. . . . Counsel has not explained in any way the nonsuit for failure to plead. . . . The plaintiffs did nothing to respond to numerous pleadings, motions or requests filed by Barr. This is not inadvertence, but negligent and dilatory conduct. . . . [Section 52-592] does not provide the plaintiffs protection due to the pattern of behavior that led to the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ case.” The court, Martin, J., subsequently granted Peerless’ motion to dismiss on July 31, 2001, adopting and incorporating Judge McLachlan’s reasoning and conclusion that was utilized in deciding Barr’s motion to dismiss. The plaintiff then filed motions to reargue, which were denied. This appeal followed. This court subsequently granted Barr’s motion to dismiss as untimely the plaintiff’s appeal as to Barr. Barr, therefore, is not involved in this appeal.

[606]*606On appeal, the plaintiff claims that he was entitled to avail himself of the accidental failure of suit statute, and, therefore, that the trial court improperly granted Peerless’ motion to dismiss. We agree and reverse the judgment of the trial court as to Peerless.

We first set forth our standard of review governing motions to dismiss.6 “Our standard of review of a trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law in connection with a motion to dismiss is well settled. A finding of fact will not be disturbed unless it is clearly erroneous. . . . [W]here the legal conclusions of the court are challenged, we must determine whether they are legally and logically correct and whether they find support in the facts .... Thus, our review of the trial court’s ultimate legal conclusion and resulting [granting] of the motion to dismiss will be de novo. ... A motion to dismiss admits all facts well pleaded and invokes any record that accompanies the motion, including supporting affidavits that contain undisputed facts.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Henriquez v. Allegre, 68 Conn. App. 238, 242, 789 A.2d 1142 (2002).

As previously stated, § 52-592, the accidental failure of suit statute, provides in relevant part: “(a) If any action, commenced within the time limited by law, has failed one or more times to be tried on its merits . . . for any matter of form . . . the plaintiff . . . may commence a new action . . . for the same cause at any time within one year after the determination of the original action or after the reversal of the judgment.” [607]*607Warranting a broad construction, § 52-592 (a) essentially is remedial in nature. Ruddock v. Burrowes, 243 Conn. 569, 575, 706 A.2d 967 (1998). “Deemed a ‘saving statute,’ § 52-592 enables plaintiffs to bring anew causes of action despite the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations. . . . Although § 52-592 should be broadly construed because of its remedial nature, it should not be construed ‘so broadly as to hamper a trial court’s ability to manage its docket by dismissing cases for appropriate transgressions.’ ” (Citation omitted.) Pepitone v. Serman, 69 Conn. App.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
806 A.2d 567, 72 Conn. App. 601, 2002 Conn. App. LEXIS 505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stevenson-v-peerless-industries-inc-connappct-2002.