Karanda v. Bradford

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages for personal injuries that she alleg- edly sustained during a motor vehicle accident as a result of the defen- dant's negligence. Thereafter, the trial court granted the defendant's motion for an order of compliance and ordered the plaintiff to comply with the defendant's outstanding discovery requests. Subsequently, the defendant filed motions for an order compelling the plaintiff's deposi- tion, which the court granted, and for a judgment of nonsuit on the basis of the plaintiff's continued failure to comply with discovery requests. The court ordered the plaintiff to comply fully with the defendant's discovery requests or face the imposition of sanctions. Thereafter, the defendant filed two motions for a judgment of nonsuit on the bases that the plaintiff had failed to comply with a substantial portion of the discovery requests and that the plaintiff had not attended her deposition as ordered by the court. Following argument, the court granted the defendant's motions and rendered judgment dismissing the plaintiff's action on July 1, 2019. The plaintiff filed a motion to open the judgment on October 28, 2019, but did not attach an affidavit as required by statute (§ 52-212 (c)), and, although the plaintiff filed an affidavit on November 7, 2019, that date fell outside of the four month range permitted by § 52- 212. The court denied the plaintiff's motion. On appeal, held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the plaintiff's motion to open the judgment of nonsuit: the plaintiff filed her motion without the affidavit required by § 52-212 (c), and the affidavit that she subse- quently filed was untimely; moreover, the court properly determined that the plaintiff's affidavit did not meet the substantive requirements of § 52-212 (a), as the plaintiff merely alleged that she had maintained a good cause of action but did not show that a good defense existed at the time the judgment of dismissal was rendered. A