Metropolitan District Commission v. Marriott International, Inc.

Citations

• 216 Conn. App. 154

Syllabus

The plaintiff municipal water control authority sought to recover damages from the defendants, the state of Connecticut and M Co., a hotel franchi- sor, for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. The plaintiff entered into a developer permit agreement with the state, which authorized the state to construct and install a new sanitary sewer main for a mixed-use development project in downtown Hartford. The state's subcontractors constructed the authorized sewer main along with a lateral sewer line that extended from the sewer main to a newly constructed hotel. Thir- teen years after the hotel opened, the plaintiff commenced this action, claiming that the hotel's connection to the sewer main was performed without a permit or an inspection by the plaintiff, that, as a result, the state remained liable for all maintenance and repairs of the sewer main, and that the state had failed to pay the plaintiff for such repairs. The trial court granted the state's motion to dismiss all counts against it on the ground of sovereign immunity. Prior to the filing of any responsive pleading by M Co., the plaintiff elected to exercise its administrative prerogative pursuant to the applicable statute (§ 7-249) to levy a special benefit assessment on the hotel property, which was in an amount equal to the amount of the damages that it sought in the pending civil action. Neither M Co. nor any entity associated with the ownership or manage- ment of the hotel property exercised or attempted to exercise its right to appeal the assessment. The assessment went unpaid, and the plaintiff filed a lien on the hotel's land records. Thereafter, M Co. filed a motion for summary judgment in the civil action, which the trial court granted, finding that the plaintiff's claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations (§ 52-576 (a)) and that the plaintiff had sued the wrong party, as M Co. did not own, manage or do business as the hotel, nor was it party to any written agreement involving t