6 Conn. Cir. Ct. 680 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1972
The plaintiff operates a hotel and gambling casino in Puerto Rico and brought this action against the defendants, husband and wife, residents of Connecticut, to recover $3000 loaned to them in four instalments between February 26 and March 1, 1969, while they were guests at its hotel. In its more specific statement the plaintiff claimed that the loans were made at the request of the defendant Frank J. Lateano and were paid to him in the form of chips. Thereafter the plaintiff by amendment alleged that it cashed “defendant’s [sic]” checks in that amount. The defendants pleaded specially that any debt due the plaintiff arose out of gambling transactions, and they have moved for summary judgment because of the uncol-lectibility of gambling debts in Connecticut. The plaintiff has countered with its own motion for summary judgment on the law.
Summary judgment should 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. Practice Book § 303; Anderson v. Watson, 162 Conn. 245, 248; First Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Deane, 29 Conn. Sup. 505, 506.
The defendant relies on Ciampittiello v. Campitello, 134 Conn. 51, in which our court held that we
It is a general principle of our law that a plaintiff may enforce in the courts of this state any legal right of action which he may have under the law of another jurisdiction except when that law or the
The California court’s decision in Lane & Pyron, Inc. v. Gibbs, 71 Cal. Rptr. 817, restricted the applicability of Hamilton v. Abadjian, supra, here. In that case the casino furnished free air transportation, weekend lodging, meals and drinks to the defendant. During a single night he cashed five checks at two neighboring casinos, which assigned them to the plaintiff for collection. The transactions took place at the cashiers’ cages, located fifteen to twenty feet from the nearest game. The checks were exchanged for cash, and no restrictions were placed on the money’s use. The defendant admitted that he was free to walk out with the money or to expend it on food, liquor or entertainment, but instead he lost it gambling. By statutory change since the Hamilton case, the presumptions of consideration and legality were no longer evidence available to the plaintiff. Aside from the lack of restriction on the customer’s use of the money and the availability of nongambling uses for the money, the plaintiff produced no evidence whatever of a nongambling purpose or nongambling use. On the other hand, the uncontradicted evidence supported the gambling purpose of the expense-paid excursion to Nevada; the gambling purpose of the cashiers’ booths near the gambling areas; the gambling purpose of the customer in cashing the checks; the gambling purpose of the club in supplying the check cashing services; and the mutual participation of customer and club in gambling with the proceeds. The court found that the
The Texas court in Gulf Collateral, Inc. v. Cauble, 462 S.W.2d 619, granted summary judgment to the gambler-debtor on his affirmative defense of illegality in that the indebtedness sued on was created for gambling purposes. This was a suit by an assignee on a nonnegotiable instrument given for chips lost at gambling tables. The defendant conceded that he was not compelled to use the chips for gambling alone but could have purchased items of merchandise with them, the chips being there treated as having the same value as money as a medium of exchange. The court stated that where the movant’s affidavit is from an interested party pertaining to matters reasonably capable of exact statement, and is clear, direct, and positive, is internally devoid of inconsistencies and contradictions, and is uncon-tradicted by testimony of other witnesses or by circumstances, it may be taken and accepted as establishing the fact in question, corroborated there by the failure of the opponent to offer contrary evidence when the testimony related to matters not solely within the knowledge of the witness and was subject to ready contradiction if the testimony was false. Id., 623. The court did not consider it of moment that the defendant had a possibility of expending the chips for purchases, the money value of which, if any, would have been trifling in comparison to the $100,000 lost gambling.
The court finds the uncontroverted statements of the defendant’s affidavit sufficient evidence to sustain his defense of illegality of the debt incurred for gambling purposes. The plaintiff’s claim is against the long-established public policy of our state and is unenforceable in our courts.
Accordingly, the defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted.