Francini v. Riggione

Citations

• 193 Conn. App. 321

Syllabus

The plaintiffs, trustees of a certain trust, sought to recover damages from the defendant for, inter alia, breach of contract. The plaintiff F had purchased an undeveloped lot from the defendant in the town of Milford with views of Long Island Sound, Charles Island, and Milford Harbor. At closing, the parties entered into an agreement pursuant to which the defendant was to maintain certain height restrictions on his property, regrade certain topsoil and trim certain tree limbs. After attempts to resolve disputes related to the topsoil and tree limbs had failed, the plaintiffs commenced this action. Following a trial, the court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs with respect to their breach of contract claims and awarded them $4100 in damages, but it denied their request for injunctive and equitable relief with respect to their claim of private nuisance, and determined that the plaintiffs' two principal claims for injunctive relief regarding the tree limbs and the pile of topsoil had become moot because the defendant trimmed the relevant limbs and leveled the topsoil so that it no longer obstructed F's view. Subsequently, the court held an evidentiary hearing concerning a motion for attorney's fees filed by the plaintiffs in accordance with a provision of the parties' contract, which provided that the prevailing party in litigation enforcing the agreement would be entitled to recover reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. The trial court awarded the plaintiffs $93,405 in attor- ney's fees and costs and determined that the plaintiffs were the prevailing party under the contract. On the defendant's appeal to this court, held: 1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by not discounting the award of attorney's fees on account of the small sum awarded to the plaintiffs for the breach of contract claim; although the defendant claimed that a proper analysis of the factors listed in rule 1.5 (a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct would compel a signif