Finley v. Western Express, Inc.

Citations

• 205 Conn. App. 473

Syllabus

The plaintiff, who suffered injuries when the tractor trailer he was operating was struck by an unavoidable object, sought to recover uninsured motor- ist benefits allegedly due under a policy of insurance issued by the defendant C Co. to the defendant W Co. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was an agent or employee of W Co. and was operating a tractor trailer maintained by W Co. and covered by a fleet insurance policy issued by C Co. The trial court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the ground that there was no genuine issue of material fact that the tractor trailer was not covered by uninsured motorist insurance. Specifically, the court concluded that Tennessee law governed the parties' dispute, that the plaintiff was not entitled to uninsured motorist benefits under Tennessee law because it did not require the defendants to provide such coverage, and that certain Con- necticut statutes requiring uninsured motorist coverage did not apply because the tractor trailer was not registered or principally garaged in Connecticut. From the judgment rendered thereon, the plaintiff appealed to this court. On appeal, the plaintiff claimed that the court misinter- preted applicable Connecticut law and disregarded public policy in con- cluding as a matter of law that the insurance policy did not provide uninsured motorist coverage and relied solely on Connecticut law in arguing that uninsured motorist coverage was required. Held that the plaintiff's appeal was dismissed as moot, the plaintiff having failed to challenge all of the bases for the trial court's summary judgment ruling; the principal basis for the court's ruling was that Tennessee law applied to the action and that the plaintiff was not entitled to uninsured motorist benefits under Tennessee law, and, as the plaintiff failed to challenge this independent basis for the court's summary judgment ruling, this court could not afford any practical relief. Argued March 9—officially released Ju