Brown v. Cartwright

Citations

• 203 Conn. App. 490

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendants C, I Co., and H Co. pursuant to the Connecticut Product Liability Act (§ 52-572m et seq.) in connection with personal injuries he sustained in single car accident that occurred when the left front wheel of his vehicle fractured. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants. The plaintiff thereafter filed a motion to set aside the verdict and for a new trial. The plaintiff claimed in his motion, inter alia, that, after the jury had retired to the deliberation room, the defendants' exhibits were timely delivered to the jury room but the plaintiff's exhibits were not, constitut- ing evidentiary impropriety. The jury returned its verdict approximately ten minutes after it had received the plaintiff's exhibits. The trial court denied the motion and rendered judgment in favor of the defendants, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court. Held: 1. The plaintiff could not prevail on his claim that the trial court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict and order a new trial on the ground that court failed to ensure that the plaintiff's exhibits were with the jury when it commenced deliberations: the plaintiff presented no evidence that the jury began deliberations prior to the delivery of the exhibits, the jury was afforded a fair opportunity to deliberate with all the exhibits before it, and it was undisputed that the jury received all the exhibits prior to returning its verdict; moreover, the fact that there was only a short period of time between when the jury received the plaintiff's exhibits and it reached a verdict, did not necessarily indicate a lack of diligence but, rather, may have attested to the weakness of the plain- tiff's case. 2. This court concluded that the plaintiff waived his unpreserved claim that the trial court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict and order a new trial due to juror misconduct: although the plaintiff claimed that the jury may have begun deliberations pr