Shoreline Shellfish, LLC v. Branford

Citations

• 336 Conn. 403

Syllabus

The plaintiffs sought damages from the defendant, the town of Branford, for, inter alia, breach of contract in connection with the plaintiffs' unsuc- cessful attempt to lease a shellfishing ground in Branford known as lot 511. The plaintiffs had entered into an agreement with the town's Shell- fish Commission under which the plaintiffs agreed to share information with the commission about potential shellfishing grounds in exchange for the right of first refusal to lease lot 511. Thereafter, when one of the plaintiffs' competitors applied to lease lot 511, the plaintiffs exercised their right of first refusal, but the commission leased the lot to the plaintiffs' competitor. The town moved for summary judgment on the ground that the right of first refusal was not a valid or enforceable contract because the commission lacked the authority to enter into an agreement in view of the provision of the Branford Town Code (§ 88- (internal quotation marks omitted)). Even if we were to assume that plain error review remains available to the defendant as a procedural matter, however, we would decline to invoke it under the facts of this particular case. The plain error doctrine is an ''extraordinary remedy used by appellate courts to rectify errors committed at trial that, although unpreserved, are of such monumental proportion that they threaten to erode our system of justice and work a serious and manifest injustice on the aggrieved party. . . . [I]t is a doctrine that this court invokes in order to rectify a trial court ruling that, although either not properly preserved or never raised at all in the trial court, nonetheless requires reversal of the trial court's judgment, for reasons of policy.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Myers, 290 Conn. 278, 289, 963 A.2d 11 (2009). Because the defendant's own account of the events on the night in question indicates that he did not use force against the victim in an attempt to regain his mother's keys, we can perceive of