Harrigan v. Fidelity National Title Ins. Co.

Citations

• 214 Conn. App. 787

Syllabus

The plaintiff property owner sought to recover damages from the defendant title insurance company for an alleged violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) (§ 42-110a et seq.), based on a violation of the Connecticut Unfair Insurance Practices Act (CUIPA) (§ 38a-815 et seq.), in connection with a title insurance policy issued by the defendant to the plaintiff. The plaintiff brought the present action after protracted negotiations between the parties regarding the value of the plaintiff's claim as to a disputed property title. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices in its administration of the policy and in its handling of the plaintiff's claim. Following a trial, the trial court found that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate any unfair claim settlement practices under CUIPA by the defendant. On appeal, the plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the evidence he presented at trial established that the defendant's unfair practices in failing to acknowledge and act with reasonable promptness upon communications with respect to his claim, in violation of the applicable provision (§ 38a-816 (6) (B)) of CUIPA, were part of a general business practice by the defendant, as required under § 38a-816 (6). Held that the trial court correctly rendered judgment in favor of the defendant with respect to the CUTPA claim, as the plaintiff, having failed to establish a general business practice of delaying communications by the defendant, failed to set forth a valid CUIPA claim, which was fatal to the plaintiff's CUTPA claim: the evidence presented by the plaintiff did not establish the existence of a general business practice by the defendant for pur- poses of § 38a-816 (6), as the cases relied on by the plaintiff to show a general business practice were factually distinguishable and had ques- tionable evidentiary value in light of their differences, and the plaintiff failed to present any testimony or other do