Gleason v. Durden

Citations

• 211 Conn. App. 416

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendants, his siblings, M, H and C, and his brother-in-law A, for, inter alia, unjust enrichment and breach of contract. The plaintiff alleged that the parties entered into a family cooperative agreement following the death of his mother in 1973. Under that agreement, the plaintiff would use his discretion over the assets that he and C had inherited from their mother to cooper- ate with M and H, who had been disinherited, in order to bring the family closer together. The assets included properties located at Haverhill Road and Partridge Lane in Trumbull. After their mother's death, M and A moved into Haverhill Road with C, who could not live alone, while the plaintiff went away to college. Over the course of several decades, the parties continued to assist each other financially and otherwise. In 2005, the plaintiff sold Haverhill Road to M and A for $183,100, which was $250,000 less than the fair market value of the property, to help finance a project at Partridge Lane. The parties allegedly had decided to build a house on the Partridge Lane property as the first step in their overall family plan to develop their various properties. In his second amended complaint, the plaintiff alleged, inter alia, that M and A owed him the $250,000 difference between the sale price and the fair market value of Haverhill Road, on the basis of the family cooperative agreement, under the theories of breach of contract and unjust enrichment. The trial court rejected the plaintiff's breach of contract claim, concluding that the plaintiff had failed to prove the existence of the family cooperative agreement. The court found for the plaintiff and C on the plaintiff's unjust enrichment claim against M and A, concluding that the sale of Haverhill Road for less than fair market value was part of a separate family agreement to develop property in Newtown that the parties had inherited from an uncle. The court concluded that the $250,000 tha