Garcia v. Cohen

Citations

• 335 Conn. 3

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendant landlords, R and D, for personal injuries that the plaintiff sustained when she slipped and fell on a staircase outside of her apartment building. The plaintiff claimed that the defendants were negligent in failing to keep the steps of the staircase free of dirt and sand and by allowing the surface of the steps to become pitted, worn and uneven. The defendants denied the allegations of negligence and pleaded a special defense that contained four specifications of contributory negligence. At trial, R testified that other individuals helped him with snow removal at the property and that, together, they would remove snow and spread salt and sand on the staircase but that no one would return thereafter to clear the staircase after spreading salt and sand. In light of R's testimony, the plaintiff requested that the trial court instruct the jury that the defendants had a nondelegable duty to maintain the safety of the premises and to submit to the jury three interrogatories that addressed certain grounds on which it could determine liability. The trial court declined to instruct the jury on the nondelegable duty doctrine or to submit the plaintiff's proposed interrogatories, determining that neither was necessary. After the trial court charged the jury on the applicable law, which did not include an explanation regarding the nondelegable duty doctrine, the trial court asked counsel if there were an exceptions to the court's charge, to which the plaintiff's attorney responded, ''[o]ther than what I had filed previously, no . . . .'' The jury subsequently returned a verdict for the defendants, and the trial court denied the plaintiff's motions to set aside the verdict and for a new trial, and rendered judgment for the defendants. The plaintiff appealed to the Appellate Court, claiming that the trial court had improperly rejected her request to charge and improperly failed to instruct the jury on the defendants' nond