Pollard v. Bridgeport

Citations

• 204 Conn. App. 187

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendants for injuries she sustained when she fell on a public sidewalk that was located in the defendant city of Bridgeport, adjacent to the property owned by the defendant S Co., a housing cooperative association. She alleged that her injuries were the result of the defective condition of the sidewalk, which was raised, uneven, and deteriorated. As part of the discovery process, S Co. hired an engineering firm to lift the sidewalk in the location of the incident and it was determined that its deteriorated condition was the result of a large tree root growing directly beneath the sidewalk. The root emanated from a tree growing on S Co.'s property. S Co. filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that it could not be held liable for the plaintiff's alleged injuries, either by statute or under the common law. The trial court granted the motion and rendered judgment thereon, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court, claim- ing that the trial court improperly granted the motion because genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether S Co. was liable for her injuries due to its negligence or for maintaining a nuisance that caused the defect in the sidewalk. Held that the trial court properly rendered summary judgment in favor of S Co. because no genuine issue of material fact existed as to its liability for the plaintiff's injuries: the plaintiff could not prevail on her claim that her injuries were the result of S Co.'s negligence because S Co. did not owe a duty of care to the plaintiff, as the primary responsibility for maintaining public sidewalks in a reason- ably safe condition falls to municipalities, not abutting landowners; moreover, neither of the exceptions to that general rule applied in this case because there was no statute or ordinance that shifted liability from the city to the landowner and the injury was not the result of an affirmative act of the landowner, as the growth of tree roots i