Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Pearson

• Decision Date: 29 July 1952
• Citation: 139 Conn. 186,91 A.2d 778
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: BRIDGEPORT HYDRAULIC CO. v. PEARSON. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 778

91 A.2d 778

139 Conn. 186

BRIDGEPORT HYDRAULIC CO. v. PEARSON.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 29, 1952.

Marion T. Pearson, pro se.

Arthur C. Williams, Bridgeport, with whom, on the brief, was Philo C. Calhoun, Bridgeport, for appellee.

Before BROWN, C. J., and JENNINGS, BALDWIN, INGLIS, and O'SULLIVAN, JJ.

INGLIS, Associate Justice.

The judgment from which this appeal was taken enjoined the defendant from further litigating the matters which had been in controversy between the parties for many years. The ultimate question is whether the court erred in concluding that the plaintiff was entitled to that relief.

Inasmuch as the defendant has not brought up the evidence, her attacks upon the finding of subordinate facts are futile. The material subordinate facts found are the following: The plaintiff is a corporation supplying water to the public. It has the right, under the power of eminent domain, to take the property it deems necessary for its purposes. The defendant claims an interest in two separate pieces of real estate in the town of Weston, one known as the forge property and the other as the schoolhouse property. The litigation between the parties started on January 26, 1938. At that time, the defendant and her husband, Walter, were the owners of record of the forge property. The plaintiff instituted an action against them in which it sought to condemn that property for use in the construction of a reservior. The action was docketed in the Superior Court in Fairfield County as No. 55050 and will hereinafter be referred to by that number. A committee was duly appointed and their report assessing damages of $1750 was accepted by the court on May 23, 1939. Mrs. Pearson, the present defendant, moved to set aside the judgment accepting the report and from a denial of that motion she took an appeal. The appeal, however, was abated, and on November 29, 1939, an execution for peaceable possession was issued. On the same day Mrs. Pearson moved for a stay of that execution, but the motion was denied. In her motion she alleged, among other reasons, that the legislative act authorizing the plaintiff to condemn property was unconstitutional and that the construction of the reservior was not feasible because it involved damming the Saugatuck River, a navigable stream, and the plaintiff had not sought or received permission from federal authorities. The execution was served December 8, 1939, and the Pearsons' personal property was removed from the premises by the sheriff. After several subsequent attempts to reopen the matter, Mrs. Pearson finally, on February 4, 1948, accepted the $1750 awarded to her.

On February 17, 1938, the plaintiff instituted a proceeding to condemn the schoolhouse property. In this action, which was docketed in the Superior Court in Fairfield County as No. 55266, the defendants named and served were the 'widow, heirs, representatives and creditors of Bradley Hull, late of [the] Town of Weston, deceased,' the widow, widower, heirs, representatives and creditors of Arthur M. Thorp and Eliza Sherwood, respectively, School District No. 8, Town of Easton, and the Forge District, Town of Weston. Mrs. Pearson was not joined as a defendant when the action was instituted, because the land records disclosed no interest in the property in her. She never was formally made a party. On March 4, 1938, and again on March 10, 1938, however, she made a special appearance in court to assert her claims to an interest in the property and to oppose the taking. She also, on March 25, filed an objection to further proceedings until she should be served as a party.

The committee to assess damages which had been duly appointed by the court held their hearing on March 25. Of this Mrs. Pearson had formal notice, but she did not appeal. In their report the committee stated that they found that the record title to the property stood in the name of the two school districts but that the property had been abandoned and not used for school purposes for more than twenty years. They also reported that neither Mrs. Pearson nor anyone else had offered any evidence of a claimed interest in the property. They added, however, that someone whose name was unknown to the committee had, during recent months, partially roofed over the old schoolhouse. The committee assessed damages in favor of the two school districts and found that no other person named in the application 'or named or described in the order of notice of this Committee' would sustain any damage by reason of the taking. The quoted phrase obviously referred to Mrs. Pearson. The committee's report was accepted by the court on April 14, 1938. On October 6 the court ordered that execution be issued to put the plaintiff in peaceable possession of the property. On October 8 the sheriff made return on the execution that he had given to the plaintiff 'the quiet seizin and possession' of the premises by 'putting out the miscellaneous furniture, etc. belonging to Mrs. Mary [sic] Pearson.'

On December 13, 1938, Mrs. Pearson filed in case No. 55266 her motion to set aside the order for execution. In this motion she alleged that she had been in possession of the property in question since June, 1937; that this fact was well known to the plaintiff; that she had received notice of the committee hearing and had objected by telegram to the court to all action to which she had not been made a party; and that the order for execution had been obtained without notice to her. The motion was denied. No appeal was taken either from the judgment ordering the issuance of the execution or from the denial of the motion to set aside the execution.

On March 3, 1941, Mrs. Pearson instituted a suit against the plaintiff which is docketed in the Superior Court in Fairfield County as No. 62118. In this action, by amendments of the complaint filed June 10, 1941, and November 28, 1941, she alleged that the proceedings in both No. 55050 and No. 55266, as well as those in Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Rempsen, Superior Court, Fairfield County, No. 54890, and Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Weston, Superior Court, Fairfield County, No. 55293, cases which will be mentioned later in this opinion, were all invalid and that all of her interests in the properties involved in those actions had been appropriated by the company without right. A demurrer to this complaint as amended on the ground that all of her claims had been adjudicated was sustained on December 24, 1941. After several fruitless attempts on her part to amend her complaint again and after the case had been stricken from the docket in 1944 and 1945 and each time restored, it was finally stricken upon the annual call of the docket in 1946 and a motion to restore was denied. Mrs. Pearson attempted to appeal from the denial of her motion to restore, but that appeal was abated on November 26, 1946.

On April 24, 1947, Mrs. Pearson started another action against the plaintiff. This action was docketed in the Superior Court in Fairfield County as No. 75284 and is still pending. In her amended complaint she alleged that she had an interest in the schoolhouse property involved in case No. 55266 by reason of the fact that she was a resident and taxpayer of the Forge School District; that commencing in 1937 she was in possession of the property by virtue of agreements with other residents and taxpayers of the school district, with the school board of Weston and with Clinton Hull, an heir of Bradley Hull, and that the present plaintiff on October 8, 1938, unlawfully seized the property and removed her possessions to the highway. She prayed for the ejectment of the plaintiff from the property and for damages.

Mrs. Pearson has participated in two other cases brought by the plaintiff to condemn property for the reservoir. In the first of these, Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Rempsen, No. 54890, ¹ she was not a party but filed her appearance pro se. It is not found that she took any active part in the proceedings. She was made a party defendant in Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Weston, No. 55293, and entered her appearance. In this suit the plaintiff took by eminent domain for the reservoir certain public roads.

Mrs. Pearson threatens and intends to prosecute case No. 75284 and to institute and prosecute other and further proceedings against the plaintiff based upon claims with respect to the properties taken by it in cases No. 55050 and No. 55266 and disputing the validity of the proceedings in those cases.

From the foregoing facts the court concluded that the claims of Mrs. Pearson as set forth in the complaint in case No. 75284 with respect to the schoolhouse property and her claims with respect to all other rights, titles and interests claimed by her in the other actions referred to above have already been fully and finally adjudicated; that the proceedings had by her in cases Nos. 62118 and 75284, as well as those had by her after judgment in cases Nos. 55050 and 55266, were without probable cause and were actuated by a malicious purpose on her part to harass and vex the plaintiff; and that, therefore, judgment should enter as on file. That judgment enjoined Mrs. Pearson from further prosecuting case No. 75284 and from instituting or prosecuting in any court any further actions against the plaintiff based upon any claim with respect to the properties taken by the plaintiff in cases Nos. 55050 and 55266, or upon any claim for money damages or other relief in connection with either of those takings, or upon any claim that the judgments in either of those actions or any process therein was invalid or defective, or upon any act of the plaintiff pursuant to such judgments. In short, the judgment was predicated both on the ground that all of the claims which Mrs. Pearson was threatening to make had been adjudicated against her and on the ground that the litigation threatened by her was vexatious.

The second ground upon which the...