Carabetta Organization, Ltd. v. Meriden

Citations

• 196 Conn. App. 147

Syllabus

The plaintiffs brought this action claiming that the defendant city of Meriden and the defendant T Co. conspired to secure the defeat of the plaintiffs' effort to obtain approval of a certain leaseback agreement for a fifty- two acre portion of certain real property that the plaintiffs had sold to P Co., which sought to build a power plant on the property. The lease agreement was to be granted subject to its being approved by the Con- necticut Siting Council as part of the power plant project. After P Co. sold the property to another entity, the Connecticut Siting Council approved the power plant project but rejected the leaseback agreement and conditioned approval of the project on the transfer of the fifty-two acres to the city, which thereafter redesignated the fifty-two acres as open space. The plaintiffs previously had brought four unsuccessful actions against, inter alia, T Co. and the city in federal and state court seeking to effectuate the lease. The trial court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, concluding that the plaintiffs' claims were barred by the doctrine of res judicata. The court determined that the lease was the same one involved in the plaintiffs' prior lawsuits against the city, in which the plaintiffs tried to force the city to recognize the lease, and that the only new claim against T Co. was that it orches- trated the defeat of the plaintiffs' effort to obtain approval from the Connecticut Siting Council. The court rendered judgment for the defen- dants, and the plaintiffs appealed to this court, claiming that the trial court improperly concluded that res judicata barred their claims. Held that the trial court properly rendered summary judgment for the defen- dants, as the plaintiffs' claims stemmed from the same agreement per- taining to the lease and sought redress on the basis of the same underly- ing factual predicate, which was the Connecticut Siting Council's rejection of their efforts to effectuate the lease, and, des