Jefferson Solar, LLC v. FuelCell Energy, Inc.

Citations

• 213 Conn. App. 288

Syllabus

The plaintiff, an energy company, sought to recover damages for, inter alia, an alleged violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) (§ 42-110a et seq.), in connection with an alleged false bid certification submitted by the defendants, competing energy companies, in an attempt to secure a long-term clean energy contract with a utility company. As part of the bidding process, the defendants were required to demonstrate that they had full control over the property for the proposed energy facility. The plaintiff alleged that the city of Danbury, in executing an option agreement to lease certain land to the defendants, failed to comply with the city charter and with statutory notice require- ments, which effectively invalidated the defendants' option agreement. The plaintiff claimed it suffered damages in lost revenue that it would have received in securing the contract but for the defendants' false bid certification that was ultimately chosen. Thereafter, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the ground that the plaintiff lacked standing to pursue its CUTPA claim, which the trial court granted. On the plaintiff's appeal to this court, held: the trial court did not err in concluding that the plaintiff lacked standing to maintain its CUTPA action against the defendants, as the plaintiff's claims were remote and indirect because, if the defendants' knowingly submitted a false bid and the option agreement was unlawful and without legal effect as the plaintiff alleged, the utility company that was a party to the energy facility contract would have been a directly injured party and would have been best suited to seek a remedy for the harm; moreover, although the plaintiff claimed that it was certain to have received the contract in question if the defendants lacked the necessary site control, because that contention was not alleged in the operative complaint and was undermined by the plain language of the request for bids, which stated