Allen v. Shoppes at Buckland Hills, LLC
Case Details
- Judge(s)
- Moll; Cradle; Clark
- Status — whether other courts must follow this ruling
- Published
- Procedural Posture — the stage the case had reached
- appeal
Related Laws
No specific laws identified for this ruling.
Outcome
The appellate court affirmed a jury verdict in favor of the defendants Shoppes at Buckland Hills and AlliedBarton Security Services, finding that the trial court properly instructed the jury on superseding cause and that the plaintiff failed to establish negligence.
Excerpt
The plaintiff, an off duty East Granby police officer, sought to recover damages for personal injuries that he sustained after being hit by a car while he was on the premises of a shopping mall owned by the defendant B Co. in Manchester. While in the parking lot of the shopping mall, he heard a radio broadcast indicating a pursuit of a suspected participant in a crime and was injured after he joined that pursuit and was struck by the car that the suspect entered, which was driven by C. The plaintiff alleged that his injuries were a result of the negligence of B Co., and A Co., which provided security services for B Co., for, inter alia, chasing the suspect into the mall parking lot. Following a jury verdict and judgment for the defendants, the plaintiff appealed to this court, claiming that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on superseding cause, improperly instructed the jury on the statutory (§ 54-1f) duties of off duty police officers, and failed to instruct the jury on the duties owed by a possessor of land to invitees. Held: 1. The plaintiff could not prevail on his claim that the trial court's charge to the jury on the doctrine of superseding cause was improper and harmful, as it was not reasonably probable that the jury was misled by the trial court's instruction on the doctrine; the court's charge, read as a whole, was correct in law, adapted to the issues, and was sufficient for the guidance of the jury, as the court charged the jury that, in order for the defendants to prevail on their special defense that C's conduct was a superseding cause of the plaintiff's injuries, the defendants had to demonstrate that C had intentionally or criminally struck the plaintiff with his car, and, the jury, on the interrogatories, found that C's conduct was both intentional or criminal and not foreseeable, and there was ample evidence presented to show that C's conduct was intentional or criminal, including the plaintiff's testimony and his statement to the pol
What This Ruling Means
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