Ocasio v. Verdura Construction, LLC

Citations

• 215 Conn. App. 139

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendant landlord for injuries he allegedly sustained as a result of the defendant's negligence in failing to maintain a porch railing on the premises leased by the plaintiff. One winter morning, the plaintiff fell and broke his leg when he exited his apartment building while sleet and/or freezing rain were falling. The plaintiff claimed that his fall was due to a defective railing that ran along the stairs leading up to the building. He alleged that the railing gave way when he grabbed onto it, which caused him to lose his balance and fall down the stairs. The defendant asserted the ongoing storm doctrine as a special defense, claiming that it did not have a duty to remove any ice from the property during a storm. The plaintiff argued that the doctrine was not applicable because the theory of his case, as presented to the jury, was that his fall was due to the defective railing, not to the presence of ice on the porch. Over the plaintiff's objection, the trial court instructed the jury that if it determined that the ice on the porch and stairs was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's fall and subsequent injuries, it had to apply the ongoing storm doctrine. The trial court also provided the jury with a set of interrogatories. The first two questions asked the jury whether it found that there was an ongoing storm at the time of the incident and, if so, whether the defendant had proved that the icy condition from such storm was the proximate cause of the fall and damages sustained by the plaintiff. In the event that its responses to those questions were in the affirmative, the interrogatories instructed the jury to skip the remaining questions and to return a verdict in favor of the defendant. The jury answered the first two questions in the affirmative and, in accordance with the instructions, returned a defendant's verdict. Thereafter, the trial court denied the plaintiff's motion to set aside the verdict, and the