Winn v. Posades

• Decision Date: 09 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. 17567.,17567.
• Citation: Winn v. Posades, 913 A.2d 407, 281 Conn. 50 (Conn. 2007)
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Donna WINN, Administratrix (Estate of Glenn Winn) v. David POSADES et al.

913 A.2d 407

281 Conn. 50

Donna WINN, Administratrix (Estate of Glenn Winn) v. David POSADES et al.

No. 17567.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued September 21, 2006.

Decided January 9, 2007.

Norman A. Pattis, Bethany, with whom were Erin M. Kallaugher and Kimberly Coleman, for the appellant (plaintiff).

David S. Monastersky, Hartford, with whom was Claudia A. Baio, for the appellees (defendants).

BORDEN, KATZ, PALMER, VERTEFEUILLE and ZARELLA, Js.

VERTEFEUILLE, J.

This certified appeal arises from an action brought by the plaintiff, Donna Winn, the administratrix of the estate of her deceased son, Glenn Winn (decedent), against the defendants, David Posades and the town of Plainville, for the wrongful death of the decedent resulting from an automobile collision at an intersection. On appeal, the plaintiff claims that the Appellate Court improperly affirmed the judgment of the trial court, which had granted the defendants' motion for judgment of dismissal for failure to make out a prima facie case at the close of the plaintiff's case. Winn v. Posades, 91 Conn.App. 610, 881 A.2d 524 (2005). Specifically, the plaintiff claims that the Appellate Court improperly concluded that the plaintiff had failed to present sufficient evidence of proximate cause as an element of her negligence and recklessness claims. We disagree, and, accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.

The Appellate Court opinion sets forth the procedural history of this case and the following evidence that was presented by the plaintiff at trial. "On September 4, 1997, Posades, a member of the Plainville police department, was scheduled to work the midnight shift, from 11:45 p.m. until 7:45 a.m. He arrived at the police station at approximately 11:35 p.m. and, shortly thereafter, realized that he had left his handcuff keys at home. He set out for home in his police cruiser, traveling west on Route 372 toward the intersection with Route 177, an intersection controlled by a traffic light. As he entered that intersection, Posades, with a clear view to the south on Route 177, but an obstructed view to the north on Route 177, looked to the south. He was traveling at a speed of fifty-eight to seventy-five miles per hour in a twenty-five mile per hour zone. Meanwhile, the . . . decedent, who was traveling south on Route 177 at a speed of thirty-seven to forty-six miles per hour in a thirty-five mile per hour zone, proceeded into the intersection directly in the path of Posades' vehicle. Posades' vehicle struck the vehicle being driven by the . . . decedent, causing the decedent's vehicle to flip before it settled off the road. There were no skid marks in the area. The impact injured Posades and fatally injured the . . . decedent, who died nine days after the accident. The . . . decedent never regained consciousness to explain what had happened before his death. Posades, the sole [surviving] eyewitness to the accident, testified that he recalled nothing of the accident or how it had occurred. He last remembered traveling west on Route 372 toward the intersection with Route 177.

"The plaintiff subsequently filed this action against the defendants, alleging, inter alia, that the collision in which the . . . decedent was killed was caused by Posades' negligent and reckless operation of his vehicle. After presentation of the plaintiff's case-in-chief, the defendants filed a motion for a judgment of dismissal. The court heard arguments and granted the motion, stating: `I have read and reread most of the cases on the topic of speed and proximate cause, and, after viewing the evidence most favorabl[y] toward the plaintiff, I have reluctantly concluded that the plaintiff has not made out a prima facie case. The plaintiff has the duty of proving the elements of the case, that includes duty, negligence, proximate cause and damages. The evidence to me, clearly, there was a duty. These were operators on the highway. They had a duty to each other. Clearly, there was damage, and clearly, in my view, there was evidence of negligence. In fact, there was evidence of recklessness. The fact that this defendant was operating at a speed which charitably could be fifty-eight miles per hour and could have been as high as seventy-five miles per hour in an area, which based on photographs, appears to be an area of mixed commercial-residential use, an area that has a speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour. To me, there is no question that that is negligence and the jury could reasonably find that it's recklessness. And, personally, I find it reprehensible that a police officer on duty not responding to an emergency was traveling that fast. . . . However, on balance, I simply find that there is not such evidence on the issue of proximate cause.'" Id., at 611-13, 881 A.2d 524. The trial court therefore granted the defendants' motion for judgment of dismissal and rendered judgment in favor of the defendants.

The plaintiff appealed from the judgment of the trial court to the Appellate Court, claiming that the trial court improperly had granted the defendants' motion for judgment of dismissal. The Appellate Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court, concluding that the plaintiff had failed to present evidence of how the accident actually happened. Id., at 618-19, 881 A.2d 524. Thereafter, we granted the plaintiff's petition for certification to appeal from the judgment of the Appellate Court, limited to the following issue: "Did the Appellate Court properly affirm the directed judgment of the trial court?" Winn v. Posades, 276 Conn. 923, 888 A.2d 91 (2005).

The plaintiff claims that the Appellate Court improperly affirmed the trial court's judgment of dismissal. Specifically, the plaintiff asserts that the Appellate Court misapplied the law regarding proximate cause, and failed to recognize that she had produced sufficient evidence to establish an unbroken sequence of events that tied the decedent's death to Posades' conduct. In response, the defendants contend that the Appellate Court properly affirmed the trial court's judgment of dismissal. The defendants assert that evidence of Posades' improper or negligent conduct in traveling at an excessive speed was not sufficient to remove the issue of proximate cause from the realm of pure speculation or guesswork, and that, therefore, the plaintiff failed to introduce sufficient evidence to establish proximate cause. We agree with the defendants, and, accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.

As an initial matter, we set forth the applicable standard of review. Practice Book § 15-8 provides in relevant part: "If, on the trial of any issue of fact in a civil action tried to the court, the plaintiff has produced evidence and rested his or her cause, the defendant may move for judgment of dismissal, and the judicial authority may grant such motion, if in its opinion the plaintiff has failed to make out a prima facie case. . . ."¹ "A prima facie case, in the sense in which that term is relevant to this case, is one sufficient to raise an issue to go to the trier of fact. . . . In order to establish a prima facie case, the proponent must submit evidence which, if credited, is sufficient to establish the fact or facts which it is adduced to prove. . . . In evaluating [the denial of] a motion to dismiss, [t]he evidence offered by the plaintiff is to be taken as true and interpreted in the light most favorable to [the plaintiff], and every reasonable inference is to be drawn in [the plaintiff's] favor." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Thomas v. West Haven, 249 Conn. 385, 392, 734 A.2d 535 (1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1187, 120 S.Ct. 1239, 146 L.Ed.2d 99 (2000). "Whether the plaintiff has established a prima facie case entitling the plaintiff to submit a claim to a trier of fact is a question of law over which our review is plenary." DiStefano v. Milardo, 276 Conn. 416, 422, 886 A.2d 415 (2005).

We view in the light most favorable to the plaintiff the following additional evidence, which was presented to the trial court and is relevant to the determination of whether the plaintiff had established a prima facie case of negligence or recklessness. The police officer who had performed an investigation of the accident testified that the front of the cruiser driven by Posades struck the driver's side of the vehicle driven by the decedent at the intersection of Route 372 and Route 177, causing the decedent's vehicle to roll over and the decedent to be ejected from his vehicle, resulting in the serious injuries that led to his death. The officer further testified that, at the time of the collision, Posades was traveling in a westerly direction on Route 372 at approximately fifty-eight to seventy-five miles per hour in a twenty-five mile per hour zone, and the decedent was traveling in a southerly direction on Route 177 at approximately thirty-seven to forty-six miles per hour in a thirty-five mile per hour zone. The evidence further indicated that Posades was looking to the left of the intersection at the time of the accident, not to the direction from which the decedent was approaching. The evidence also established that the traffic light at the intersection was controlled by an electronic trigger, which was activated when motor vehicles approached the intersection from the north or south on Route 177. Posades was unable to recall how the accident happened, the decedent never regained consciousness, and there were no witnesses to the accident.

In affirming the judgment of the trial court, the Appellate Court concluded that "the plaintiff presented no evidence as to how the accident actually had happened. Even if the plaintiff's evidence tended to show that Posades was negligent or reckless in driving his police cruiser through the intersection at a speed of fifty-eight to seventy-five miles per hour in a twenty-five mile per hour zone, there was no evidence that that...