McCann v. City of New Haven
McCann v. City of New Haven
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff, Mary Joan McCann, appeals from the summary judgment rendered by the trial court in favor of the defendant city of New Haven. The plaintiff claims that the trial court improperly determined that the notice given to the defendant, pur
The relevant facts are as follows. On May 25, 1992, the plaintiff filed a two count revised complaint
“Summary judgment is a method of resolving litigation when 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. ...” (Citations omitted; internal quotation
Section 13a-149 provides that before an action for personal injury caused by a defective road may be brought against a municipality bound to keep it in repair, the claimant must first give the municipality “written notice of such injury and a general description of the same, and of the cause thereof and the time and place of its occurrence.” “Whether notice is sufficient is normally a question of fact for the jury. . . . The sufficiency of the notice is to be tested by the purpose of the statute, and not by the requirements of a pleading. . . . The obvious purpose of [the statutory notice provision] is that the officers of municipal corporations, against which suits for injuries are about to be instituted, shall have such precise information as to time and place as will enable them to enquire into the facts of the case intelligently. . . . Notice is sufficient if it enables one of ordinary intelligence, using ordinary diligence under the circumstances, to ascertain where the injury occurred. ...” (Citations omitted; emphasis in original; internal quotation marks omitted.) Bassin v. Stamford, 26 Conn. App. 534, 539, 602 A.2d 1044 (1992).
Here, the notice informed the municipality that the defect was a “hole in [the] street surface; deteriorated street surface” and that the defect was located “where the road surface meets the curbing adjacent to 17 Hillhouse Avenue — east side of Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT.” While we recognize that the notice in this case is not a model of clarity, it cannot be said that, as a matter of law, it was so insufficient that it would not enable one of ordinary intelligence, using ordinary diligence under the circumstances of this case, to ascertain the defect and where it was located. See id. Neither the fact that the frontage of the property at 17 Hillhouse Avenue is 270 or 272
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The plaintiff further claims that even if the notice were inadequate as a matter of law, the saving clause contained in General Statutes § 13a-149 would validate the notice. Because of our disposition of this matter we need not reach this issue.
The second count alleging the creation and maintenance of a nuisance by the defendant was withdrawn at the time of the hearing on the motion for summary judgment.
General Statutes § 13a-149 provides in relevant part: “No action for any such injury shall be maintained against any town, city, corporation or borough, unless written notice of such injury and a general description of the same, and of the cause thereof and of the time and place of its occurrence, shall, within ninety days thereafter be given to a selectman or the clerk of such town, or to the clerk of such city or borough, or to the secretary or treasurer of such corporation. If the injury has been caused by a structure legally placed on such road by a railroad company, it, and not the party bound to keep the road in repair, shall be liable therefor. No notice given under the provisions of this section shall be held invalid or insufficient by reason of an inaccuracy in describing the injury or in stating the time, place or cause of its occurrence, if it appears that there was no intention to mislead or that such town, city, corporation or borough was not in fact misled thereby.”
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.