Asnat Realty, LLC v. United Illuminating Co.

Citations

• 204 Conn. App. 313

Syllabus

The plaintiffs, A Co. and E Co., sought damages from the defendants U Co., a utility company, U Co.'s parent company, and several individuals for, inter alia, fraudulent nondisclosure for concealing the true cost of environmental remediation on property the plaintiffs acquired from Q Co. Q Co. had purchased the property from U Co., which contaminated the site with hazardous materials. Prior to selling it to Q Co., U Co. had a study conducted to estimate the cost of remediation and the decommissioning of the site and designated a certain amount of money for that purpose. It was later discovered that U Co. concealed the true cost of remediating the site and that the cost was much higher than was originally estimated. The trial court granted the defendants' motion to strike several counts of the complaint, pleading fraud and unjust enrichment against the various defendants, from which the plaintiffs appealed to this court. Held that the trial court did not err in its decision to strike portions of the complaint that pleaded fraud and unjust enrich- ment, as that court properly concluded that the complaint contained broad allegations that were insufficient to satisfy the pleading require- ments for fraud and that the complaint failed to allege, with the requisite specificity, that the defendants' alleged fraud was done to induce the plaintiffs to act, and failed to allege that the defendants had a duty of full and fair disclosure of known facts to the plaintiffs as it pertained to the property: the plaintiffs' claims of fraud did not plead specific acts and merely referenced the defendants' filings and representations as proof of fraudulent conduct, the complaint failed to allege that the defendants' fraudulent conduct was done with the intention or purpose to induce the plaintiffs to act to their detriment, as the complaint did not allege that the defendants had any knowledge that Q Co. would sell the site to future purchasers at the time it acquired the property, the