Goody v. Bedard

Citations

• 200 Conn. App. 621

Syllabus

The plaintiff administrator of the estate of the decedent sought to recover damages from the defendant S for negligence in connection with the drug overdose and subsequent death of the decedent at her residence. He alleged that, on the day that the decedent overdosed, B, who lived with S at her residence, invited the decedent to consume drugs at the residence where the decedent became unresponsive and unconscious, that the decedent thereafter died and that the decedent's injuries and death were caused by S's negligence in that she knew or should have known that drugs were being used on the premises and she failed, inter alia, to take any action to remove the drugs from the premises. S filed a motion for summary judgment and an affidavit in support thereof in which she averred that she did not invite the decedent to her residence and B did not ask her permission to have him there, that she was not present at her residence when the decedent was there and that she did not learn that he had been there until the day after he had overdosed. Thereafter, the trial court granted, over S's objection, two motions filed by the plaintiff for an extension of time to respond to S's motion for summary judgment. Nearly two weeks after the second deadline date and four days before the rescheduled date for oral argument on S's motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff filed a third motion for an extension of time, which the court did not act on. Thereafter, following a hearing, the trial court granted S's motion for summary judgment and rendered judgment thereon, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court. Held: 1. The plaintiff's claim that the trial court abused its discretion in effectively denying his third motion for an extension of time to respond to S's motion for summary judgment because additional time for discovery was needed to obtain B's medical records and to perform depositions of other witnesses was unavailing; the plaintiff already had been granted two prior moti