Costanzo v. Plainfield

Citations

• 200 Conn. App. 755

Syllabus

The plaintiff mother, as the administratrix of her daughter's estate, sought to recover damages in connection with her daughter's drowning death in an aboveground pool from the defendants, the town of Plainfield and two town employees, for their failure to inspect the pool to ensure that mandated safety measures had been installed. The plaintiff was a tenant of the property where the accident occurred. The pool did not have a self-closing or self latching gate, or a pool alarm, which were required as part of the state building code. The defendants filed a notice of intent to seek apportionment pursuant to statute (§ 52-102b), as to the property owners for their alleged negligence in failing to ensure that the pool met all required safety requirements. The defendants also filed an appor- tionment complaint, as to the former tenants of the property, alleging that they were negligent in failing to notify the defendants that the pool had been constructed and that an inspection was needed. The plaintiff thereafter filed an objection to the defendants' notice of intent to seek apportionment as to the property owners, and an objection to the defen- dants' apportionment complaint against the former tenants, on the ground that the plaintiff's cause of action in the revised complaint was not grounded in negligence but, rather, an intentional or reckless tort pursuant to the municipal liability statute (§ 52-557n (b) (8)), and, there- fore, the apportionment statute was inapplicable. The trial court sus- tained the plaintiff's objections. On appeal, the defendants claimed that the trial court erred in sustaining the plaintiff's objections on the basis that the plaintiff's revised complaint implicated both exceptions to municipal immunity contained in § 52-557n (b) (8) and that the first exception employed a negligence standard, not a recklessness standard, thus allowing the defendants to seek apportionment. Held that the trial court erred in sustaining the plaintiff's objectio