Dept. of Social Services v. Freeman

Syllabus

The plaintiff, the Department of Social Services, sought to recover damages from the defendant attorney for conversion in connection with the defen- dant's failure to comply with a child support lien against settlement proceeds of his client R's personal injury action. Because R owed child support arrearages for the children, the plaintiff sent notice to the defen- dant of a child support lien, directing him not to distribute any proceeds from the personal injury action without first complying with the lien. The lien notice was addressed to the defendant's correct street address but listed an incorrect zip code. Following the settlement of R's personal injury action, the defendant distributed the proceeds to himself, R and R's creditors, but did not pay any proceeds to the plaintiff toward R's child support arrearages. The plaintiff commenced this statutory (§ 52- 362d) conversion action against the defendant to recover $9500.70 in child support still owed by R as a result of the defendant's failure to withhold that amount from the settlement proceeds to satisfy the lien. The defendant denied that he had received notice of the child support lien. In December, 2017, the plaintiff submitted its trial management report, which listed, as a fact witness, C, who was described as being the supervisor for customer service support with the United States Postal Service in Hartford. In the report, the plaintiff explained that C would testify that a letter mailed to the correct street address but the wrong zip code within Hartford would be delivered to the stated address but that it would take longer. In March, 2018, the defendant filed a motion in limine to preclude C's proposed testimony as improper expert testimony because the plaintiff had not filed an expert witness disclo- sure. Following a hearing on the motion held the day before the start of evidence, the trial court determined that, although C must be consid- ered an expert witness, the plaintiff could file a late dis