Coughlin v. Anderson
Decision Date | 10 August 2004 |
Docket Number | (SC 17046). |
Citation | 853 A.2d 460,270 Conn. 487 |
Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Parties | CHRISTOPHER M. COUGHLIN v. ARNOLD S. ANDERSON. CHRISTOPHER M. COUGHLIN v. FRANK J. GILBRIDE II ET AL. |
Borden, Norcott, Katz, Palmer and Vertefeuille, Js.
Conrad Ost Seifert, with whom was Jason Gladstone, for the appellant (plaintiff).
Robert C. E. Laney, for the appellee (substitute defendant in the first case).
Michael S. Lynch, for the appellees (defendants in the second case).
The plaintiff, Christopher M. Coughlin, appeals1 from the judgment of the trial court, rendered following the trial court's granting of a directed verdict in favor of the defendants, Arnold S. Anderson, Frank Gilbride II, and the law firm of Gilbride, Tusa, Last and Spellane (law firm),2 at the close of the plaintiff's case-in-chief. The plaintiff claims that the trial court improperly: (1) (a) granted the defendants' motions for a directed verdict on the basis of the Connecticut Marketable Title Act (act); General Statutes § 47-33b et seq.; despite the defendants not having pleaded the act as a special defense, and (b) placed the burden of proof under the act on the plaintiff; (2) concluded that the defendants were entitled to a directed verdict in their favor because the plaintiff had failed to establish an essential element of his case, namely, proof of damages to a reasonable degree of certainty; and (3) precluded the plaintiff's expert witness from rendering an opinion, on redirect examination, regarding the damages resulting from a partial encumbrance of the plaintiff's property when previously, on direct examination, the witness had rendered an opinion limited to the damages resulting from a total encumbrance of the plaintiff's property and had testified that his opinion as to damages was premised on the "critical assumption" that the plaintiff's property was encumbered totally. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The record reveals the following relevant facts and procedural history. In 1996, the plaintiff retained Gilbride, an attorney and general partner of the law firm, to represent him in the acquisition of certain real property situated at One Random Road in Greenwich. At the time, One Random Road was owned by Arnold S. Anderson, who, along with Sally Stilwell Anderson, had acquired it in 1968 by means of a warranty deed from T. Richard Morrison and Shirley G. Morrison (1968 deed). Language within the 1968 deed indicated that the conveyance to the Andersons had been subject to the reservation of an easement to install water, sewerage, gas and electrical conduits over One Random Road in favor of a parcel of land, previously owned by George K. McKenzie, situated to the south of One Random Road.3
This easement in favor of McKenzie's parcel4 originated in the 1952 conveyance of One Random Road from McKenzie to C. Andrew Perkins (1952 deed). Thereafter, similar language reserving an easement over One Random Road was included within: a 1954 warranty deed transferring One Random Road from Perkins to Walter Brown and Ena Brown (1954 deed); a 1959 warranty deed from the Browns to Carl Lindemann and Marguerite Lindemann (1959 deed); a 1963 warranty deed from the Lindemanns to the Morrisons (1963 deed); and the 1968 deed from the Morrisons to the Andersons.
On October 1, 1996, the plaintiff acquired One Random Road from Arnold S. Anderson5 by means of a warranty deed (1996 deed) for a purchase price of $700,000. The 1996 deed, in which Anderson covenanted that One Random Road was being transferred to the plaintiff "free from all encumbrances whatsoever except as . . . mentioned," did not state that the property was subject to the easement in favor of Two Random Road and Four Random Road. See footnote 4 of this opinion. Moreover, prior to the October 1, 1996 conveyance, the existence of the easement over One Random Road was not disclosed to the plaintiff by the defendants.
Following acquisition of One Random Road, the plaintiff learned of the existence of the easement and also discovered that, during the 1950s, this right had been exercised through the installation of three subsurface conduits that remained in place on One Random Road as of October 1, 1996.6 On December 1, 1997, the plaintiff commenced an action against Anderson, alleging that his failure to disclose the existence of the easement constituted a breach of the covenant against encumbrances contained in the 1996 deed, and that such breach diminished the fair market value of One Random Road. Thereafter, the plaintiff brought a separate action against Gilbride and the law firm, alleging that their failure to discover the easement, and disclose its existence to the plaintiff, prior to the conveyance of One Random Road, constituted professional negligence and a breach of their contract with the plaintiff to provide him with competent legal representation in connection with his acquisition of One Random Road. Upon motion by Gilbride and the law firm in the latter action, the two matters were consolidated by the trial court.
At trial, the plaintiff advanced the theory that the encumbrance of One Random Road was a "floating easement"7 that encumbered all of the land outside the footprint of the existing dwelling, thereby precluding any additional development. In support of this theory, the plaintiff presented the expert witness testimony of Charles Campbell, an attorney licensed in Connecticut and practicing in the field of real estate. Campbell testified that, because the easement created in the 1952 deed had not specified a particular portion of One Random Road over which the right could be exercised, the easement was floating and covered the entire property beyond the footprint of the existing dwelling. One Random Road was encumbered totally, Campbell testified, because "there is no place where the property owner can safely build anything [since] the easement holder could come in just after he was finished with construction and say, oh, by the way, I now want to put in my [sewerage] line and you will have to tear this down."
The plaintiff also presented the expert witness testimony of Kevin Harkins, a certified real estate appraiser. Harkins testified that, as of October 1, 1996, the fair market value of One Random Road, free from encumbrances, was $700,000. Assuming, however, that a floating easement encumbered all of the land beyond the footprint of the existing dwelling,8 Harkins testified that the fair market value of One Random Road as of October 1, 1996, was $442,000—a diminution in value of $258,000. This appraisal of One Random Road, as encumbered by a floating easement, was based on Harkins' determination that the "developable" land—that land within the footprint of the existing dwelling—had a value of $77 per square foot while the encumbered "excess" land outside that footprint had a value of $2.50 per square foot.9
At the close of the plaintiff's case-in-chief, the defendants moved for a directed verdict as to all of the plaintiff's claims, asserting that he had failed to establish proof of damages to a reasonable degree of certainty. Specifically, the defendants claimed that, notwithstanding the fact that language reserving an easement over One Random Road had been included within the 1954, 1959, 1963 and 1968 deeds, the easement had been extinguished by operation of law because those conveyances, which encompassed more than forty years of ownership, were not accompanied by a specific reference to the volume and page within the land records for the 1952 deed that had created the easement. General Statutes §§ 47-33c10 and 47-33d (1).11 Although the defendants conceded that the three conduits that were in existence as of October 1, 1996, were valid pursuant to General Statutes § 47-33h (1),12 they claimed that a directed verdict in their favor was proper because the preserved conduits constituted a fixed, and partial, encumbrance of One Random Road and the plaintiff had presented no evidence of damages resulting from a partial encumbrance, choosing instead to present evidence of damages resulting from a floating easement that had encumbered One Random Road entirely.
In an oral ruling, the trial court granted the defendants' motions for a directed verdict. In considering the impact of the act on the easement over One Random Road, the trial court determined that the first point of inquiry was to ascertain the relevant chain of title by identifying the "root of title."13 The trial court concluded that, as of October 1, 1996, the root of title for One Random Road was the 1954 deed because that was the conveyance that was "the most recent to be recorded as of a date forty years prior to the time when marketability is being determined...." General Statutes § 47-33b (e). After examining the various deeds within the chain of title, from the 1954 deed to the 1996 deed to the plaintiff, the trial court agreed with the defendants that the act had extinguished the easement over One Random Road because no deed contained the required reference to the specific volume and page within the land records for the 1952 deed that had created the easement. Although the 1954, 1959, 1963 and 1968 deeds contained language stating that One Random Road was subject to an easement, the trial court concluded that such language was merely a "general reference" to the easement that, pursuant to § 47-33d (1), was insufficient to preserve its validity.
The trial court also concluded that, to the extent that the easement over One Random Road had been exercised previously through the installation of the three conduits, the easement for the conduits was preserved pursuant to § 47-33h (1), thereby constituting a valid partial encumbrance of One Random Road. In that regard, however, the trial court noted that all of the evidence that had been presented during the plaintiff's case-in-chief pertained to damages resulting from a...
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