Autry v. Hosey

Citations

• 200 Conn. App. 795

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendants, H and city of New Haven, for injuries she sustained when she was struck by a police cruiser driven by H while she was a pedestrian crossing a city street. Following a bench trial, the trial court found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded her economic and noneconomic damages. In calculating the noneconomic damages, the trial court found that the emotional trauma suffered by pedestrians struck by vehicles is ''generally greater'' than that suffered by the occupants of a motor vehicle involved in an accident. On the defendants' appeal to this court, held that the trial court's factual finding that pedestrians struck by motor vehicles suffer greater emotional trauma than occupants of a motor vehicle involved in an accident was clearly erroneous; there was no evidence in the record to support the court's finding and it was not a matter of common knowledge but, rather, a determination subject to verification by medical science and, in light of the weight given by the court to this finding in reaching its award of noneconomic damages and the lack of subjective complaints from the plaintiff regarding any emotional trauma she suf- fered, the judgment with respect to the award of noneconomic damages was reversed and the matter was remanded for a new hearing in damages. Argued June 29—officially released October 13, 2020