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Defendant filed a counterclaim alleging that DISCOVERY
plaintiff did not fully pay him. The court
found for plaintiff as to breach of warranty Court Granted Plaintiff’s Motion
and as to defendant’s counterclaim; the court to Strike Defendant’s Two Special
found for defendant on plaintiff ’s negligence
claim. Starting with the breach of warranty Defenses In Hearing Regarding Pre-
claim, the court found defendant breached Action Bill Of Discovery Petition
the implied warranty that his work would be
performed in a workmanlike manner, mean- CASE: CV-19-6119733
ing that the deck would at least meet build- COURT: Hartford J.D. at Hartford
ing code requirements. As to the negligence DOC. NO.: CV-19-6119733
claim, the court found that the economic COURT OPINION BY: Noble
loss doctrine barred plaintiff from recovery. DATE: November 13, 2020 • PAGES: 20
Plaintiff ’s evidence of negligent performance
was the same as her evidence for breach of Plaintiff, a lieutenant in the Hartford Police De-
contract, and her claimed loss was only eco- partment, filed a complaint for a pre-action bill of
nomic. discovery petition alleging that defamatory com-
ments were anonymously posted to defendant’s
blog about plaintiff. Plaintiff claimed he suffered
injury to his personal and professional reputa-
CONTRACTS • DISPUTE RESOLUTION tion and demanded that defendant release the IP

Court Entered Stay of Lawsuit Pending addresses and other identifying information of
the anonymous users. Defendant filed two special
Arbitration After Finding Valid Contract defenses and plaintiff moved to strike. The court
Between Parties granted plaintiff’s motion to strike both defenses.
In his first special defense, defendant argued that
CASE: Penangbenny Consulting LLC v. Eversource Energy he is entitled to protection from compelled disclo-
Serv. Co. sure of information because the blog falls under
the scope of news media. The court found he
COURT: Hartford J.D. failed to plead sufficient facts that showed his op-
DOC. NO.: CV-20-6132641
COURT OPINION BY: Schuman eration of the blog satisfied the criteria of “news
DATE: November 18, 2020 • PAGES: 7 media,” stating that the facts defendant alleged
Defendant, a public utility power company, demonstrated that the blog is more personal in
contracted with plaintiff to provide certain nature than newsworthy. The court specifically
software consulting services. Plaintiff alleged noted that the blog allowed unedited comments
that defendant failed to pay plaintiff for its from its subscribers. Defendant’s second special
services and billed $1.8 million. Plaintiff defense alleged that the Communications De-
sued defendant for various counts. Defen- cency Act protected him from any lawsuit. The
dant moved to dismiss based on an arbitra- court granted plaintiff’s motion as to this defense
tion clause in the contract. Plaintiff objected as well, reasoning that the defense was inapplica-
to arbitration on the ground that the parties’ ble because defendant’s own rights have not been
contract was invalid. The court denied the adversely impacted by plaintiff’s request for sub-
motion to dismiss but entered a stay of the scriber information; it was not alleged that defen-
case pending arbitration. The court rejected dant was one of the commenters, but rather that
plaintiff ’s argument that the contract was in- he was the publisher.
valid, citing to the parties’ cover agreement
that stated that the “effective date of the? DISPUTE RESOLUTION
agreement … shall be January 1, 2020, and
shall remain in full force and effect … through
12/31/2020.” Therefore, the court found that Court Granted Defendant’s Motion to
the arbitration clause contained within that Stay Pending Arbitration
agreement applied to disputes arising during
that time period. The court declined to dis- CASE: Macri Assoc., Inc. v. EMJ Corp.
COURT: Danbury J.D.
miss the case simply because it was subject DOC. NO.: CV-20-6036233
to arbitration, stating that defendant did not COURT OPINION BY: D’Andrea
cite any authority warranting that result. DATE: November 17, 2020 • PAGES: 23

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