Grant v. West Haven Gardens Co.

• Citation: 435 A.2d 970,181 Conn. 379
• Court: Supreme Court of Connecticut
• Decision Date: 01 July 1980
• Parties: Elizabeth Grant et al., Coexecutors v. The WEST HAVEN GARDENS COMPANY et al. (ESTATE of Pasquale STELLATO)

Page 970

435 A.2d 970

181 Conn. 379

Elizabeth Grant et al., Coexecutors v. The WEST HAVEN GARDENS COMPANY et al.

(ESTATE of Pasquale STELLATO)

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued April 1, 1980.

Decided July 1, 1980.

William F. Gallagher, New Haven, with whom, on the brief was Charles P. Costanzo, New Haven, for appellants (named defendant et al.).

Dennis N. Garvey, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was Edward L. Walsh, New Haven, for appellees (plaintiffs).

Before COTTER, C. J., and LOISELLE, BOGDANSKI, PETERS and HEALEY, JJ.

LOISELLE, Associate Justice.

The defendants appeal from a judgment rendered for the plaintiffs claiming that the findings of fact are insufficient as a matter of law to support the conclusion that the plaintiffs are entitled to an award in the amount of $60,000. Since the facts found are in issue, we review those findings in some detail.

The plaintiffs are coexecutors of the estate of Pasquale Stellato. The defendants are G. Thomas Vitagliano and West Haven Gardens Company, of which Vitagliano is president. The defendants admitted that at all times mentioned in this action, Vitagliano acted in his capacity and within the scope of his authority as president and an agent of West Haven Gardens. Robert Simpson, an employee of West Haven Gardens, was also a defendant at trial. The court awarded the plaintiffs $1000 against Simpson who chose not to appeal.

From 1957 until the date of his death on June 1, 1974, Pasquale Stellato resided with his wife in the home he had built at 173 Canton Street, West Haven. Approximately three years before his sudden death at the age of 84, Stellato conveyed the property to West Haven Gardens, but he and his wife continued to live there. His wife lived there after he died until August, 1974.

On August 15, 1974, the defendants began demolition of Stellato's former residence in preparation for construction of an apartment house. Vitagliano, Simpson and another employee Jay Hickerson were present. The demolition process attracted the neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Malenda, who lived across the street. They observed the bulldozer operated by Simpson as it destroyed the Stellato home and knocked down the cinder block walls of the foundation.

As the bulldozer struck the foundation near the front porch, many rolls of money fell out of the cinder blocks. When he had finished demolishing the front porch, Simpson observed the money on the ground. He got off the bulldozer and called Vitagliano to see what he had discovered. The rolls of bills were wrapped in aluminum foil and rubber bands. Each roll was approximately three and one-half inches in diameter, about the diameter of a baseball. The collision of the bulldozer with the house had caused some of the rolls to come apart.

Vitagliano, who had been sitting with Hickerson on the steps of an adjacent building, immediately came to the area where Simpson had discovered the money. Vitagliano got down on his hands and knees and stuffed all the rolls and the remaining loose bills in his shirt. Simpson, who was within six to seven feet of Vitagliano at the time, observed him picking up bunches of bills. The Malendas, who were on friendly terms with Vitagliano, observed the defendants' actions from a distance of thirty to forty feet away. Mr. Malenda observed Vitagliano pick up four or five secured rolls and the bills from one additional roll which had broken apart and stuff them in his shirt. Mrs. Malenda observed Vitagliano pick up between five and seven rolls and the bills from two or three additional rolls which had broken apart and stuff them in his shirt. Immediately after Vitagliano finished stuffing the money in his shirt, which created a huge bulge, the Malendas heard him tell one of his employees that the bills he found totaled $60,000 to $70,000.

Simpson, who picked up $1000 in loose bills at random, found only bills of $100 denomination. All bills seen by Simpson, who had discovered the money, were located within a five foot radius and were in $100 denomination. Later that day Mr. Malenda found one $100 bill among the debris.

As soon as Vitagliano finished stuffing the money into his shirt, his wife, accompanied by their two children aged two and four, arrived at the job site in her automobile. Vitagliano pulled the children from the car, left them with Hickerson and told his wife to drive him home. He was very nervous during the drive home. His wife was upset because he dragged the children out of the car. When she asked him what happened, he opened his shirt and she saw the money. When they arrived home, Vitagliano told his wife to remain in the car. He entered the house, put the money in a bag and hid it in the attic.

His wife drove him back to the job site. Later that day Simpson gave Vitagliano $200 of the money he had found. That evening Vitagliano returned to the job site alone with the money and counted it in his trailer. He never, even as of the date of trial, told his wife how much money he had found. Nor did he ever return or offer to return any of the money found to the estate or the heirs of Pasquale Stellato.

Pasquale Stellato was a frugal man. Before he retired in the 1960s, he worked for the Hotel Taft in New Haven. At home he raised his own fruits and vegetables, which he and his wife canned, in a garden which was like a small farm. He purchased only the bare necessities for himself and his wife. His weekly expenditures for food did not exceed fifteen dollars. He bought only dented cans and items which had been reduced in price at the store. Stellato did not own an automobile. His home, which was modestly furnished, was free of encumbrances. Any medical bills incurred by him and his wife in their later years were paid by medicare. Stellato was so careful with his money that he was even able to save a portion of his social security benefits.

Stellato always paid cash, which he wrapped in tin foil, for his purchases. He never had a checking account. He did not rent a safe deposit box. Having suffered losses in the bank closings during the depression, Stellato distrusted banking institutions and told his relatives and neighbors to put only part of their money in the bank and to keep the rest at home.

Stellato bought and sold many tracts of real estate during his lifetime. He sold his mortgage free home on Canton Street in West Haven to West Haven Gardens for $70,000. The parties stipulated that Stellato had received $76,900 from eighteen other real estate transactions in West Haven. He also received $32,000 from the sale of real estate in Florida, in addition to other income from the sale of property in Florida and Italy. Between 1960 and 1970, Stellato paid $7066.39 in real estate taxes. Between 1962 and 1971, when he sold the Canton Street residence, he paid $422.80 per year in sewer assessments.

Sometime in the late 1950s, after selling some real estate in Florida, Stellato told his wife and daughter that he had $50,000 to $60,000 hidden in the basement of 173 Canton Street. He told them to look in the basement if something happened to him because there would be money to care for his wife and to pay for his grandson's college education. During the summer of 1972, Stellato took his grandson to the bank and gave the teller $4000 cash wrapped in aluminum foil and rubber bands, in return for checks which he gave to his grandson to pay his college education expenses for the year. He paid his grandson's college education expenses for the following two years as well. When Stellato died suddenly in June, 1974, his family searched the basement of the home as he had told them to do but did not find the money.

The trial court concluded that the defendants must return the money found to the estate of Pasquale Stellato as the true owner, because the estate had constructive possession of the mislaid money. The amount of money found by the defendants, the court concluded, was equal to or greater than $60,000; the amount taken by the defendant Vitagliano, seven to ten rolls of bills and loose currency, or 1820 to 2600 bills, totaling $60,000 or more.

The defendants concede that the money they found in the walls of the former Stellato residence is the property of the plaintiffs and must be returned to them. Sharkiewicz v. Lepone, 139 Conn. 706, 707-708, 96 A.2d 796 (1953); State v. Courtsol, 89 Conn. 564, 568-69, 94 A. 973 (1915); see Favorite v. Miller, 176 Conn. 310, 312-13, 407 A.2d 974 (1978). The defendants' sole argument on appeal is that the court's conclusion that Vitagliano found and took possession of $60,000 or more is speculative and conjectural, and...