SC19850 - Martinez v. New Haven ("The principal issue in this appeal is
whether the trial court properly determined that the
named plaintiff, Anthony Martinez, proved the imminent
harm to identifiable persons exception to the
defense of governmental immunity with respect to
facial injuries that he sustained when other students
engaged in horseplay by running with a pair of safety
scissors in the auditorium of his school. The plaintiff
commenced this action against the defendants, the city
of New Haven (city), the Board of Education of the
City of New Haven (board), and Garth Harries, the
Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools,
seeking
damages for, inter alia, their negligent supervision of
students pursuant to General Statutes § 52-557n (a).
On appeal,
the defendants claim, inter alia, that the
trial court improperly held that the plaintiff satisfied
the imminent harm to identifiable persons exception
to governmental immunity, which this court recently
clarified in Haynes v. Middletown, 314 Conn. 303, 101
A.3d 249 (2014). The plaintiff disagrees, and also claims,
as an alternative ground for affirming the judgment
of the trial court, that the defendants failed to plead
governmental immunity as a special defense in the operative
answer. We conclude that the plaintiff has failed
to prove that the defendants’ conduct had subjected an
identifiable person to imminent harm. We also conclude
that the trial court implicitly granted the defendants’
request to amend their answer to plead governmental
immunity as a special defense. Accordingly, we reverse
in part the judgment of the trial court.")