Kenneson v. Eggert

Citations

• 196 Conn. App. 773

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendant attorney E, and the defendant insurance company, N Co., claiming that E had committed fraud against the plaintiff and that N Co. was vicariously liable for E's actions. The plaintiff had previously brought an action for, inter alia, negligence against A, who was insured by N Co., and another individual, R. A was represented by E on behalf of N. Co. in the negligence action, in which the jury awarded the plaintiff damages against both A and R. Pursuant to a settlement agreement in that action, the plaintiff signed a general release and withdrawal form in exchange for settling the case against A. The plaintiff later discovered that she would be unable to recover damages from R, and moved to open the judgment in the negli- gence action, claiming that E had engaged in unfair and deceptive behav- ior by instructing her to sign the release without explaining what it was and how it could affect the judgment in that action. After the trial court in the negligence action denied her motion to open and concluded that there was no evidence that E had coerced the plaintiff into signing the release, the plaintiff commenced the present action alleging fraud against E and N Co. Thereafter, the court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, concluding that the plaintiff was collaterally estopped from asserting her fraud action because the issue had been addressed in the negligence action, and the plaintiff appealed to this court. This court reversed in part the judgment of the trial court, conclud- ing that the trial court improperly granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the plaintiff's claim for intentional misrepresen- tation because there were genuine issues of material fact whether that claim had been fully and fairly litigated at the hearing on the motion to open the negligence action, and remanded the case for further proceed- ings. Following the remand, the defendants filed a motion to