Pollard v. Geico General Ins. Co.

Citations

• 215 Conn. App. 11

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover underinsured motorist benefits pursuant to an automobile insurance policy issued by the defendant insurer in connection with injuries she had sustained in a motor vehicle accident in 2012. The plaintiff first brought an action against the defendant in 2016 related to the accident, which the trial court disposed of by granting the defendant's motion for nonsuit due to the plaintiff's failure to comply with discovery orders. The plaintiff initiated the present action against the defendant in 2019 pursuant to the accidental failure of suit statute (§ 52-592 (a)). The defendant moved for summary judgment, alleging that the plaintiff could not bring the present action pursuant to § 52- 592 (a) because the nonsuit in the prior action was for disciplinary reasons and further alleging that her claim for benefits was untimely pursuant to the terms of the policy, which precluded claims for underin- sured motorist benefits from being brought more than three years after the date of an accident without invoking a tolling provision of the policy by providing the defendant with written notice of a claim for uninsured motorist benefits. The plaintiff claimed that a letter her counsel sent to the defendant in 2012 satisfied the tolling provision of the insurance policy. The trial court granted the motion and rendered judgment thereon, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court. Held that the plaintiff could not prevail on her claim that the trial court improperly granted summary judgment to the defendant: although the trial court granted the motion for summary judgment on the basis that, as a matter of law, § 52-592 (a) was not applicable, this court affirmed the trial court's granting of summary judgment on the alternative ground that no genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether the plaintiff failed to bring suit within three years and failed to toll that limitation period in accordance with the insurance policy, as it was undisputed