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36 ¦ OCTOBER 26, 2020 CONNECTICUT OPINIONS

related to medical diagnosis or treatment and in- found that signs limiting the state’s liability were
volved the exercise of medical judgment. There- properly posted and that the alleged pothole was
fore, the court denied defendants’ motion. in the area restricted by the signs.

Court Finds Abutting Landowner Owes PUBLIC UTILITIES • CONTRACTS
no Duty to Maintain Sidewalk owned
by City Defendant’s Motion for Summary
Judgment Granted in Generator Failure
CASE: Aston v. City of New Haven Lawsuit
COURT: New Haven J.D. at New Haven
DOC. NO.: CV19-6090733
COURT OPINION BY: Wahla CASE: New London Hospitality LLC v. Eversource Energy
DATE: September 23, 2020 • PAGES: 6 Serv. Co.
COURT: New London J.D. at New London
Plaintiff alleged she was walking along a city DOC. NO.: CV-18-6035100
street when she tripped and fell because of an COURT OPINION BY: Knox
uneven sidewalk, causing an injury. Plaintiff DATE: September 30, 2020 • PAGES: 13
brought a claim against the city and the abut- An electric outage affected plaintiff’s facility in
ting landowner, alleging they failed to ensure 2017. At that time, defendant Eversource provided
the area and edge of the sidewalk. The abut- the electric service to the property and had a con-
ting landowner moved to dismiss, arguing they tract with Sunbelt to provide generators. During
did not owe a duty to plaintiff to maintain the the 2017 power outage, Sunbelt delivered a gen-
sidewalk, and that Connecticut law imposed erator to plaintiff and installed it. Plaintiff later
no such duty on the abutting landowner. The claimed Sunbelt negligently installed or maintained
court agreed, finding the abutting landowner the generator. Defendant Sunbelt filed a motion for
did not owe a duty to the public to maintain or summary judgment and the court granted it. The
warn of a dangerous condition to the sidewalk, court granted Sunbelt’s motion as to the negligence
and granted the landowner’s motion to dismiss. count. It found that there was undisputed evidence
that demonstrated the generator was inspected to
Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss ensure proper working order before delivery and
again upon its return from plaintiff’s property. The
Granted, Plaintiff’s Complaint Alleging evidence also proved that the generator was in-
the Location of a Road Defect was too stalled properly. The court also granted Sunbelt’s
motion as to the breach of contract count. It held
Vague that plaintiff’s expansive reading of the contractual

CASE: Sisson v. Connecticut Dep’t of Transp. language was unreasonable, because it would im-
COURT: New Britain J.D.
DOC. NO.: CV-19-5026162 pose a contractual duty on Sunbelt to Eversource
COURT OPINION BY: Huddleston customers for all service interruptions.

DATE: September 29, 2020 • PAGES: 13 TRUSTS AND ESTATES

Plaintiff was driving on Route 8 when he hit
a pothole in a section that had been recently
stripped for resurfacing. He sued defendant De- Court Partially Granted Plaintiff’s
partment of Transportation under the highway Motion For Summary Judgment In
defect statute. Defendant moved to dismiss on Matter Arising Out Of Probate Court
the grounds of sovereign immunity and claimed
the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The CASE: Purtill v. Cook
court granted defendant’s motion. The court first COURT: District of Tolland J.D.
held that plaintiff’s notice was defective because it DOC. NO.: CV-19-6017480
was too vague as to where the incident occurred. COURT OPINION BY: Chaplin
Plaintiff claimed that the pothole was “[o]n Route DATE: October 02, 2020 • PAGES: 20
8 northbound near Seymour, Connecticut.” The The present suit arose out of a Probate Court
notice did not identify the location of the pot- matter to settle the decedent’s estate and a Hous-
hole and only mentioned where plaintiff stopped ing Court matter to terminate the conditional
after hitting it. The court also held that the ac- life tenancy of defendant. Plaintiff sued defen-
tion was barred by sovereign immunity; the court dants for waste, seeking to have the court enforce

CONNECTICUT
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