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Plaintiff sought recovery for injuries sustained in TRUSTS AND ESTATES
a car accident in which defendant drove her Jeep
through a red light and collided with plaintiff’s car, Court Granted Plaintiffs’ Request
totalling it. Defendant conceded that she was neg- For Prejudgment Remedy In Undue
ligent and the parties presented evidence regarding
plaintiff’s injuries and the court awarded damages Influence Lawsuit
to plaintiff in the amount of $28,136. The court
considered the following facts. At the time of the CASE: Chiappone v. Brooks
accident, plaintiff was a 20-year-old student and COURT: Stamford/Norwalk J.D. at Stamford
physically active. Plaintiff declined ambulance DOC. NO.: CV-20-5023156
transport directly after the accident but an hour COURT OPINION BY: Genuario
later went to the hospital to be evaluated for a pos- DATE: December 03, 2020 • PAGES: 26

Joe Chiappone passed away, leaving three surviving
sible concussion. The examination showed no sig- children. This lawsuit is comprised of the disagree-
nificant findings. Plaintiff experienced headaches ments among the children Tom, Barbara, and Kathy.
and knee and shoulder pain days after the accident Tom and Barbara are plaintiffs and Kathy is defen-
but those injuries subsided one week later. He con- dant. Joe had multiple accounts that he owned in
tinued to experience neck pain and was later diag- his name. The issue in this prejudgment remedy was
nosed with a sprain of the ligaments of the cervi- Joe’s state of mind when he executed several “Trans-
cal spine. He went to physical therapy for several fer on Death” forms in September 2017 that changed
months. The court found that while plaintiff’s in- the beneficiaries on those accounts. Prior to Septem-
juries were relatively minor, his symptoms were not ber 2017, some of those accounts were to be trans-
completely resolved and he continued to experience ferred equally to the three surviving siblings; after the
fatigue and discomfort. Therefore, the court award- forms were executed, all accounts were transferred to
ed plaintiff $8,136 in medical expenses and $20,000 Kathy. Plaintiffs filed a ten-count complaint against
in non-economic damages. defendant, alleging that she deprived plaintiffs of their
expected inheritance through fraud or other tortious
means. The court granted plaintiffs’ request for a pre-
REAL ESTATE judgment remedy against defendant. The court first
analyzed whether Joe had the capacity to execute the
transfer of death forms. The court held that plaintiffs
Court Found That Plaintiff was Entitled failed to meet their burden on this claim. It relied on
to Partition of Real Property several witness’s testimony stating that Joe was firm
in his intent and fully understood that he was elimi-
CASE: Gummoe v. Macomber nating Barbara and Tom as beneficiaries. The court
COURT: Tolland J.D. at Rockville then discussed whether Joe was unduly influenced by
DOC. NO.: CV-19-6016763 Kathy to change his estate plan. It found that Joe was
COURT OPINION BY: Sicilian subject to influence given his diminished mental ca-
DATE: December 10, 2020 • PAGES: 19 pacity and his reliance on Kathy. Kathy had the op-
portunity to exert undue influence, given that Kathy
Plaintiff brought this lawsuit seeking an order to was the sibling who took care of Joe as he became
set aside a conveyance of residential property, to weaker and was there on a regular basis. Kathy had
reinstate title to him and defendant as joint ten- the disposition to exert undue influence, given that
ants, a determination of the parties’ rights in the
property, and a partition of the property. Defen- she had separated from her employer in 2011 and had
dant filed a counterclaim to quiet title. The court diminished income. Therefore, the court found that
found for plaintiff on his claim for partition and plaintiffs sustained the burden of proof with regard to
for defendant on her counterclaim to quiet title. whether Kathy exercised undue influence of Joe.
The court found that defendant prepared and fully
executed a second deed, restoring plaintiff’s one- WRONGFUL DEATH
half interest in the property. The court also found
that this second deed was prepared and executed
to fulfill the parties’ agreement that as a condition Court Finds No Sovereign Immunity for
of plaintiff’s agreement to quitclaim his interest in Autonomous Halfway House
the property to defendant, defendant would exe-
cute a deed restoring plaintiff’s one-half interest in CASE: Ramos v. Isaiah 61:1, Inc.
the property that would be operative if the parties’ COURT: Fairfield J.D. at Bridgeport
DOC. NO.: CV-19-6090630
relationship ended. Therefore, the court held that COURT OPINION BY: Welch
plaintiff established the basis for partition. DATE: December 08, 2020 • PAGES: 17

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