Serrano v. Burns

• Decision Date: 20 April 1999
• Docket Number: (SC 15957)
• Citation: 248 Conn. 419,727 A.2d 1276
• Parties: MARIA SERRANO v. J. WILLIAM BURNS, COMMISSIONER OF TRANSPORTATION, ET AL.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

248 Conn. 419

727 A.2d 1276

MARIA SERRANO v. J. WILLIAM BURNS, COMMISSIONER OF TRANSPORTATION, ET AL.

(SC 15957)

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued January 20, 1999.

Officially released April 20, 1999.

Borden, Berdon, Norcott, Katz and Palmer, JS.

James H. Lee, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Lorinda S. Coon, with whom, on the brief, was Elizabeth Fairbanks Flynn, for the appellee (named defendant).

Opinion

NORCOTT, J.

The sole issue in this appeal¹ is whether the plaintiff, Maria Serrano, may recover damages pursuant to General Statutes § 13a-144² from the named defendant, J. William Burns, commissioner of transportation (commissioner), for personal injuries she allegedly had suffered as a result of slipping and falling in a public parking lot. The plaintiff appeals from the judgment of the trial court granting the commissioner's summary judgment motion and dismissing her action. In this appeal, she argues that the trial court improperly granted the commissioner's motion for summary judgment because: (1) that court improperly concluded that, as a matter of law, the parking lot where the plaintiff was injured was not covered by § 13a-144; and (2) the commissioner's motion was unaccompanied by any affidavits or documentary evidence as required by Practice Book § 17-45.³ We agree with the plaintiffs first claim, and we reverse the trial court's judgment on that basis. We do not, therefore, reach the plaintiffs second claim.

The following are the relevant allegations and pretrial procedural events. The plaintiff brought this action against the commissioner and the defendant city of Middletown (city), claiming that she was injured when, due to accumulation of ice and snow, she slipped and fell in the parking lot of a public rest area located between exits 19 and 20 on Interstate 91 in the city. In her complaint, the plaintiff alleged that both the city and the commissioner were legally obligated to maintain the parking lot in a reasonably safe condition. Although the plaintiff did not expressly claim so, her causes of action address the alleged liability of the commissioner and the city under § 13a-144 and General Statutes § 13a-149,⁴ respectively.

The defendants responded as follows. In its answer, the city denied having an obligation to maintain the parking lot in a reasonably safe condition. In his answer, however, the commissioner admitted that the department of transportation legally was obligated to maintain the parking lot in a reasonably safe condition. On the basis of the commissioner's admission, the city moved for summary judgment.⁵

While the city's motion was pending, the commissioner also filed a motion for summary judgment. In his motion, the commissioner argued that the plaintiff could not recover damages from the state for her injuries because parking lots are not covered by § 13a-144. Subsequently, the city filed a supplemental motion for summary judgment in which it argued that parking lots also were not within the ambit of § 13a-149.⁶ The trial court granted the city's motion for summary judgment, reasoning that parking lots are not covered by § 13a-149.

After the city's motion had been granted, the commissioner also filed a supplemental memorandum of law in further support of his position that parking lots are not included within § 13a-144. In a written memorandum of law in opposition to the commissioner's motions, the plaintiff argued that the commissioner was not entitled to summary judgment because whether the plaintiffs use of the parking lot was an incidental use of the highway, and thus covered by § 13a-144, was a genuine issue of fact for the jury. The trial court granted the commissioner's motion for summary judgment, reasoning that parking lots are not included within § 13a-144. The plaintiff appealed from both judgments of the trial court. The appeal with respect to the summary judgment in favor of the city, however, was dismissed by the Appellate Court due to untimeliness. Consequently, the only remaining appeal before this court is from the trial court's judgment in favor of the commissioner.

The plaintiff claims that the trial court improperly determined that, as a matter of law, parking lots are not covered by § 13a-144, and thus that court should not have granted the commissioner's summary judgment motion. We agree.

"Our standard of review of a trial court's decision to grant a motion for summary judgment is well established." Zichichi v. Middlesex Memorial Hospital, 204 Conn. 399, 402, 528 A.2d 805 (1987). Practice Book § 17-49 provides that "[t]he judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law."

"In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the trial court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.... The test is whether a party would be entitled to a directed verdict on the same facts." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Connell v. Colwell, 214 Conn. 242, 246-47, 571 A.2d 116 (1990). Summary judgment in favor of the defendant is properly granted if the defendant in its motion "raises at least one legally sufficient defense that would bar the plaintiff's claim and involves no triable issue of fact." Perille v. Raybestos-Manhattan-Europe, Inc., 196 Conn. 529, 543, 494 A.2d 555 (1985). On appeal, "we must decide whether the trial court erred in determining that there was no `genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.'" (Emphasis added.) Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Jones, 220 Conn. 285, 292, 596 A.2d 414 (1991). Our review of the trial court's judgment is de novo because this appeal involves a question of law relating to the application of § 13a-144. Davis v. Norwich, 232 Conn. 311, 317, 654 A.2d 1221 (1995).

Our prior decision in Baker v. Ives, 162 Conn. 295, 294 A.2d 290 (1972), is instructive on this issue. In Baker, we held that recovery of damages for injuries sustained by travelers on state highways pursuant to § 13a-144 was not limited to injuries caused by defects in the "`traveled portion'" of highways. Id., 302. In that case, the plaintiff had been injured after slipping and falling on an icy area that was not a traveled path on a state highway, but was within the state right-of-way line. Id., 297. The plaintiff brought an action against the state highway commissioner pursuant to § 13a-144 and, after a jury trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Id., 296. The commissioner then moved to set aside the verdict and the trial court denied the commissioner's motion. Id. On appeal, we affirmed the trial court's ruling. Id., 307.

We affirmed the trial court in Baker because, in addition to the fact that the plaintiff had fallen in an area within the "state right-of-way line"; id., 297; "the proximity of the defect to the paved portion of the highway in conjunction with the fact that the locus of the fall was in an area where occupants of vehicles were invited by the state to park their cars for the purpose of walking from their cars to the stores in the vicinity warrant[ed] the conclusion that [the] defect was `in, upon, or near the traveled path' so as to `obstruct or hinder one in the use of the road for the purpose of traveling thereon'... thereby allowing recovery under § 13a-144." (Citation omitted.) Id., 302 n.3. The facts in Baker were such that the commissioner was not entitled to a directed verdict as a matter of law.

In Baker, moreover, we determined that "[§] 13a-144 authorizes civil suits against the sovereign for injuries caused by `the neglect or default of the state ... by means of any defective highway ... in the state highway system.' This statute affords a right of recovery similar to that against the municipalities under § 13a-149 and is subject to the same limitations." Id., 298. "The state is not [however] an insurer of the safety of travelers on the highways which it has a duty to repair. Thus, it is not bound to make the roads absolutely safe for travel.... Rather, the test is whether or not the state has exercised `reasonable care to make and keep such roads in a reasonably safe condition for the reasonably prudent traveler.' ... This duty of reasonable care extends to pedestrian travel as well as to vehicular traffic.... `A person must be on the highway for some legitimate purpose connected with travel thereon in order to obtain the protection of the statute.... To qualify, a plaintiff is not obliged to remain seated in a vehicle proceeding on the highway.... Reasonable latitude is allowed to meet the exigencies of travel.'... Nor does the defect have to be on the actual traveled portion of the highway." (Citations omitted.) Id., 299.

"Whether there is a defect in such proximity to the highway so as to be considered `in, upon, or near the traveled path' of the highway must be determined on a case-by-case basis after a proper analysis of its own particular circumstances, and is generally a question of fact for the jury, which will not be disturbed by this court unless the conclusion is one which could not be reasonably reached by the trier.... It is also recognized that for purposes of recovery under § 13a-149 and § 13a-144, a highway can be considered defective, as claimed in the case at bar, by reason of ice or snow, depending, of course, on the circumstances and conditions." (Citations omitted.) Id., 300.

In its memorandum of decision, the trial court in the present case distinguished Baker by concluding that, in Baker, this court did not conclude that a parking lot was covered by § 13a-144. Consequently, the trial court did not apply Baker when ruling on the commissioner's motion. That court's failure to apply Baker was improper.

In Baker, although we did not specifically conclude that parking lots...