Greene v. Keating

Citations

• 197 Conn. App. 447

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendant law firm R Co. for statutory (§ 52-568) vexatious litigation in connection with its representation of K and N in a prior action they had brought against her. In the prior action, K and N had filed a multicount complaint alleging various claims, including prescriptive easement, and the plaintiff filed a counterclaim alleging misuse of an easement and trespass. Following a trial in the prior action, the court found in favor of the plaintiff on all counts of the complaint and in favor of K and N on the counterclaim. Thereafter, the plaintiff commenced the present action for vexatious litigation as to each count alleged in the complaint in the prior action. The court found in favor of R Co. on all of the counts except the count alleging vexatious litigation in the pursuit of K and N's prescriptive easement claim. The court found that R Co. had lost probable cause to pursue that claim in October, 2008, following its receipt of certain disclosures that made the claim untenable and that continuing to pursue it violated § 52-568. The court determined that the plaintiff was entitled to an award of double damages under § 52-568 for litigation of that claim after October, 2008; however, because the only damages that the plaintiff sought were the attorney's fees incurred in defending the underlying action, the court declined to award damages because the plaintiff had not provided the required apportionment between the attorney's fees related to the defense of the prescriptive easement claim after October, 2008, and those related to the defense of the other claims. Thereafter, the plaintiff, at the court's direction, submitted an affidavit from her attorney, with accompanying exhibits, and claimed damages in the amount of $460,878.08 for attorney's fees. Following a hearing, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of R Co., concluding that the plaintiff had relied on the wrong legal standard and that she again had fai