Bogda v. Bochenek

Citations

• 236 Conn. App. 412

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed from the trial court's summary judgment for the defendant executor in her action seeking damages for, inter alia, breach of contract with respect to a settlement agreement that the two parties had entered into with respect to the defendant's action alleging that the plaintiff had unduly influenced the decedent to name the plaintiff as a joint owner of a brokerage account held at J Co. After the settlement agreement had been executed, the defendant filed an arbitration action against J Co. alleging that J Co. had failed to detect the plaintiff's alleged undue influence related to the brokerage account and seeking the remaining money in the brokerage account that he had not received under the settlement agreement. J Co. named the plaintiff as a third-party respondent in the arbitration, seeking indemnification. The arbitration panel denied the defendant's claims and J Co.'s third-party claims against the plaintiff, and she thereafter brought the action underlying the present appeal, claiming that the arbitration action constituted an indirect claim against her that was prohibited by the settle- ment agreement. On appeal, she claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly determined that she lacked standing to bring her claims. Held: Although it was unclear whether the trial court decided the issue of standing, this court concluded that the plaintiff did have standing to bring her claims, as the allegations in the plaintiff's complaint set forth a colorable claim of injury establishing the possibility that her legally protected interests in the defendant abiding by the terms of the settlement agreement had been adversely affected. The trial court, having incorrectly determined that the defendant's pursuit of the arbitration was not prohibited by the terms of the settlement agreement, improperly rendered summary judgment for the defendant, as the express language used in the settlement agreement denoted its broad scope and its paramount purpose th