Fischer v. People's United Bank, N.A.

Syllabus

The plaintiffs, L Co., a mortgagor, F, its guarantor, and F Co., F's real estate company, sought to recover damages from the defendant bank and two of its officers after the bank rescinded its offer to refinance L Co.'s mortgage and L Co. defaulted on that mortgage. F commenced this action on behalf of all three plaintiffs, filing a five count complaint. Counts one through four were brought by all three plaintiffs and alleged breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (§ 42-110a et seq.), and tortious interference with business expectancies, respectively. Count five was brought by F only and alleged negligent infliction of emotional distress. The trial court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss, dismissing for lack of standing all claims brought by L Co. and the claims brought by F and F Co. that were set forth in the first, second, and third counts of the complaint. On the plaintiffs' appeal to this court, held: 1. The portion of the appeal that pertained to the claims of F and F Co. was dismissed because they did not appeal from a final judgment: the trial court's ruling with respect to F and F Co. was only a partial judgment because it did not fully dispose of counts four and five of the complaint; accordingly, this court did not have jurisdiction to review the appeal with respect to their claims. 2. The trial court properly determined that L Co. lacked standing to bring this action and, accordingly, the court properly dismissed the claims brought by L Co. for a lack of jurisdiction: L Co. failed to meet its burden to establish that F, acting alone on behalf of L Co.'s general partner, A Co., was legally authorized to commence the action on behalf of L Co., as L Co.'s partnership agreement granted A Co., a member managed limited liability company, full management and control over L Co., and, although F was one of the three members of A Co., because the decision t