The mission of the Connecticut Judicial Branch is to serve the interests of justice and the public by resolving matters brought before it in a fair, timely, efficient and open manner.

Tort Law Supreme Court Opinion

by Penn, Michele

 

SC20285 - Garcia v. Cohen ("In this negligence action, a jury returned a verdict finding the defendants, Robert Cohen and Diane Cohen, not liable as landlords for injuries the plaintiff, Ussbasy Garcia, suffered when she slipped and fell on the staircase outside of her apartment building. The plaintiff appealed to the Appellate Court, claiming that the trial court improperly rejected her request to charge and to instruct the jury that, the defendants, as the possessors of real property, had a nondelegable duty to maintain the premises. Garcia v. Cohen, 188 Conn. App. 380, 381–82, 204 A.3d 1245 (2019). The Appellate Court declined to review the plaintiff's claim, concluding that the general verdict rule applied because the plaintiff had failed to object when the trial court denied her request to submit her proposed interrogatories to the jury. Id., 386. Additionally, the Appellate Court concluded that the plaintiff should have made, but failed to do so, an independent claim of error on appeal on the basis of the trial court's denial of her request to submit her proposed interrogatories to the jury. Id., 386–87.

We disagree with the Appellate Court's conclusion that the general verdict rule bars appellate review of the plaintiff's jury instruction claim. The general verdict rule does not apply in the present case because the plaintiff had requested that the trial court submit her properly framed interrogatories to the jury and had objected when it denied her request. She properly framed her interrogatories by submitting questions addressing her claim of negligence and the defendants' denial of negligence and special defense of contributory negligence. The claims of negligence and contributory negligence are so intertwined with the plaintiff's nondelegable duty jury charge claim on appeal that the general verdict rule does not bar review. Additionally, the plaintiff was not required on appeal to assert an independent claim of error on the basis of the trial court's rejection of her request to submit the interrogatories to the jury. Rather, the plaintiff's submission of interrogatories and her objection upon the court's refusal to submit them to the jury is a defense to application of the general verdict rule, not an independent claim of error. For these reasons, we reverse the judgment of the Appellate Court and remand the case to that court to undertake a review of the trial court's denial of the plaintiff's request for a jury instruction on the nondelegable duty doctrine.")