Jamalipour v. Fairway's Edge Condominium Association, Inc.

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendants, a condominium association and its property manager, for, inter alia, negligence in con- nection with alleged faulty repairs to a deck attached to the plaintiff's condominium unit. The association managed a condominium community in which the plaintiff owned a unit. In 2009, the association hired a contractor to repair or replace decks throughout the community, includ- ing the plaintiff's deck. The property manager took over the management of the community before the contractor performed the repairs on the plaintiff's deck in 2011. Following a trial, the trial court determined that the repairs made to the plaintiff's deck by the contractor, under the supervision of the defendants, were deficient in several ways and that the contractor's negligence and the negligence of the defendants in subsequently failing to correct the results of the contractor's work proxi- mately caused damage to the deck and to certain interior spaces of the plaintiff's adjoining condominium unit. The court awarded the plaintiff $31,900 in damages to make the necessary repairs to the deck and condominium unit. On the defendants' appeal to this court, held: 1. The defendants could not prevail on their claim that the evidence did not support the trial court's award of damages and that the award would unjustly enrich the plaintiff; the evidence and the rational inferences to be drawn therefrom provided a factual basis for the court's award of damages, and this court was not left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake had been made, as certain testimony presented by the plaintiff from B, a licensed home improvement contractor who estimated the cost of repairing the claimed deficiencies, was particularly relevant to the precise amount of damages awarded by the court. 2. Contrary to the defendants' claim, the trial court did not fail to consider relevant association bylaws and the Common Interest Ownership Act (§ 47-200 et seq.