Ahrens v. Hartford Florists' Supply, Inc.

Syllabus

The plaintiff, A, sought to recover damages from the defendants H Co. and D Co. pursuant to the Connecticut Product Liability Act (§ 52-572m et seq.) in connection with personal injuries she sustained that she alleged were caused by her handling of a bouquet of flowers that contained a fungus. A alleged that the flowers were put into the stream of commerce by D Co. and H Co. D Co. attempted to add P Co. and F Co. to the action by filing a third-party complaint. The court subsequently granted D Co.'s motion to implead P Co. and F Co. as third-party defendants, and, thereafter, the third-party defendants filed motions to dismiss the third-party complaint. The third-party defendants claimed that D Co. improperly served the third-party complaint because D Co. did not move to implead pursuant to statute (§ 52-102a) prior to serving the third- party complaint within the applicable one year statute of limitations (§ 52-577a (b)). The trial court granted the motions to dismiss, and, from the judgment rendered thereon, D Co. appealed to this court. Held: 1. D Co. could not prevail on its claim that the trial court applied an incorrect standard when it found that strict compliance with §§ 52-102a and 52- 577a (b) was required to implead a third party into a product liability case: § 52-102a is plain and unambiguous, providing that a defendant ''may'' implead a third-party defendant, and requiring that, if a defendant chooses to implead a third-party defendant, it must seek permission from the court to do so prior to filing a third-party complaint, and D Co., having chosen to implead third-party defendants, failed to first seek permission from the court before it filed its third-party complaint, and nothing in § 52-102a indicates that a court should decide whether a defendant can implead a third-party defendant solely on equitable con- siderations. 2. The trial court did not err in concluding that there must be strict compli- ance with §§ 52-102a and 52-577a (b): although D Co