AMMAR A. IDLIBI v. JEREMIAH NII AMAA OLLENNU
(AC 42697)
Appellate Court of Connecticut
July 6, 2021
Elgo, Alexander and Devlin, Js.
The “officially released” date that appears near the beginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be published in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the beginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.
All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative.
The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publications, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut.
Syllabus
The plaintiff sought damages from the defendant attorney for abuse of process, legal malpractice, malicious prosecution, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, arising out of his conduct during his representation of the plaintiff‘s former spouse, C, in her marital dissolution action against the plaintiff. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant knowingly notarized a fraudulent interrogatory response by C, counseled C to provide false testimony to a police detective that the plaintiff had assaulted her, and failed at any time to correct C‘s false testimony under oath regarding the alleged assault. The trial court granted the defendant‘s motion to dismiss, finding that the plaintiff did not have an attorney-client relationship with the defendant and that the defendant‘s conduct was protected by the doctrine of litigation privilege. On the plaintiff‘s appeal to this court, held:
- The trial court erred in dismissing the plaintiff‘s abuse of process claim on the ground of the litigation privilege, as the claim was not within the scope of the privilege.
- The trial court properly found that, as the plaintiff at no time had an attorney-client relationship with the defendant, the plaintiff lacked standing to bring a legal malpractice claim against him.
- The trial court erred in dismissing the plaintiff‘s malicious prosecution claim on the ground of the litigation privilege, as the claim was not within the scope of the privilege.
- The trial court properly found that the plaintiff‘s claims of negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress were barred by the litigation privilege, as the defendant‘s conduct was privileged pursuant to Simms v. Seaman, 308 Conn. 523 and Stone v. Pattis, 144 Conn. App. 79.
Submitted on briefs May 10—officially released July 6, 2021
Procedural History
Action to recover damages for, inter alia, abuse of process, and for other relief, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of New Britain, where the court, Aurigemma, J., granted the defendant‘s motion to dismiss; thereafter, the court denied the plaintiff‘s motion to reargue, and the plaintiff appealed to this court. Affirmed in part; reversed in part; further proceedings.
Opinion
DEVLIN, J. The self-represented plaintiff, Ammar A. Idlibi, appeals from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his complaint against the defendant, Jeremiah Nii Amaa Ollennu, in its entirety. On appeal, Idlibi claims that the court erred by granting Ollennu‘s motion to dismiss. We reverse, in part, the judgment of the trial court.
The present case is Idlibi‘s third appeal to this court arising from the dissolution of his marriage to his former wife, Katie N. Conroy. Conroy commenced a marital dissolution action on May 26, 2015. Ollenu represented Conroy in the dissolution proceedings. On August 15, 2016, following a trial, the trial court, Carbonneau, J.,
On December 21, 2018, Idlibi instituted the present action against Ollennu, alleging various legal claims arising from his alleged role in Conroy‘s purportedly false interrogatory response and false testimony that Idlibi had assaulted her. Specifically, Idlibi alleges that Ollennu committed (1) abuse of process, (2) legal malpractice, (3) malicious prosecution, (4) negligent infliction of emotional distress, and (5) intentional infliction of emotional distress. On February 19, 2019, Ollennu, pursuant to
“[Our] review of the trial court‘s ultimate legal conclusion and resulting [decision to] grant [a] motion to dismiss will be de novo. . . . In any consideration of the trial court‘s dismissal, we take the facts as alleged in the complaint as true and [construe] them in a manner most favorable to
I
ABUSE OF PROCESS
In the first count of his complaint, Idlibi alleges that Ollennu “misused the legal process . . . to accomplish the unlawful ulterior purpose of misleading the [trial] court and winning the [dissolution] case.” Specifically, Idlibi claims that Ollennu “abus[ed] the legal process of sworn [i]nterrogatories . . . in an improper manner for the ulterior purpose of presenting false evidence [to] the court.” The court dismissed this claim, finding that it was “barred by the doctrine of absolute immunity/litigation privilege.”4
“Connecticut has long recognized the litigation privilege. . . . The general rule is that defamatory words spoken [on] an occasion absolutely privileged, though spoken falsely, knowingly, and with express malice, impose no liability for damages recoverable in an action in slander . . . . [T]he privilege extends to judges, counsel and witnesses participating in judicial proceedings . . . and acts of [s]tate. . . . [T]he privilege was founded [on] the principle that in certain cases it is advantageous for the public interest that persons should not be in any way fettered in their statements, but should speak out the whole truth, freely and fearlessly. . . . [Our Supreme] [C]ourt described the privilege as being rooted in the public policy that a judge in dealing with the matter before him, a party in preparing or resisting a legal proceeding, [or] a witness in giving evidence in a court of justice, shall do so with his mind uninfluenced by the fear of an action for defamation or a prosecution for libel. . . . This jurisdiction also has recognized the importance of access to the courts and the existence of remedies other than lawsuits as reasons for granting absolute immunity to attorneys for making allegedly defamatory statements.” (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Simms v. Seaman, 308 Conn. 523, 536-40, 69 A.3d 880 (2013).
The coverage afforded by the litigation privilege, however, is not without its limits. Our Supreme Court has held that in “an abuse of process case . . . attorneys
In the present case, taking the facts as alleged in the first count of the complaint as true and construing them in a manner favorable to the pleader, we conclude that Idlibi alleges a claim of abuse of process against Ollennu.5 Because such a claim is not within the scope of the litigation privilege, we conclude that the court erred in dismissing the claim on this ground. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court as to the abuse of process claim in count one.
II
LEGAL MALPRACTICE
In the second count of his complaint, Idlibi alleges that Ollennu engaged in legal malpractice by “deviat[- ing] from the [requisite] standard of care by violating the Rules of Professional Conduct . . . .” In dismissing the claim of legal malpractice, the court found that Idlibi lacked standing because he never had an attorney-client relationship with Ollennu. Lack of standing implicates the court‘s subject matter jurisdiction. See Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. v. Thompson, 163 Conn. App. 827, 831-32, 136 A.3d 1277 (2016).
It is well established that a plaintiff lacks standing to bring a legal practice action unless he or she can “establish . . . the existence of an attorney-client relationship . . . .” Mayer v. Biafore, Florek & O‘Neill, 245 Conn. 88, 92, 713 A.2d 1267 (1998). Because it is clear that an attorney-client relationship at no time existed between Idlibi and Ollennu, we conclude that the court properly found that Idlibi lacked standing to bring a legal malpractice claim against Ollennu. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the court dismissing Idlibi‘s claim of legal malpractice.
III
MALICIOUS PROSECUTION
In the third count of his complaint, Idlibi alleges that Ollennu engaged in malicious prosecution. Specifically, he claims that Ollennu “counseled his client to mislead [a] police detective for the purpose of procuring the institution of criminal proceedings against [Idlibi],” and that “[b]y counseling his client to continue asserting an accusation of assault against [Idlibi], Ollennu procured the institution of criminal proceedings against [him].” The court dismissed this claim after finding that it was barred by the doctrine of litigation privilege.
As discussed previously, the coverage afforded by the litigation privilege is not limitless. In addressing the limits of the litigation privilege, our Supreme Court has specifically held “that absolute immunity does not bar claims against attorneys for . . . malicious prosecution.” Simms v. Seaman, supra, 308 Conn. 541. “Both [malicious prosecution and abuse of
In the present case, taking the alleged facts as true and construing them in favor of the pleader, we conclude that Idlibi has alleged a claim of malicious prosecution against Ollennu.6 Because a claim of malicious prosecution is not within the scope of the litigation privilege, the court erred in dismissing the malicious prosecution claim in count three on this ground. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court in this regard.
IV
INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
In the fourth and fifth counts of his complaint, Idlibi alleges that Ollennu, through his conduct, either negligently or intentionally, inflicted emotional distress on him. Specifically, Idlibi claims that “[Ollennu‘s] conduct during [the meeting he and Conroy had with a police detective] not only procured the institution of criminal charges against [him], but also directly inflicted severe emotional distress and mental anguish on [him] . . . .” The court dismissed these claims after finding that they were barred by the doctrine of litigation privilege.
Our Supreme Court has held that claims alleging infliction of emotional distress that arise from the privileged conduct of an attorney are barred by the litigation privilege. See Simms v. Seaman, supra, 308 Conn. 569-70; see also Petyan v. Ellis, 200 Conn. 243, 246, 510 A.2d 1337 (1986) (holding that litigation privilege applies to claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress); Stone v. Pattis, 144 Conn. App. 79, 98, 72 A.3d 1138 (2013) (holding that litigation privilege applies to claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress).
In the present case, Ollennu‘s conduct on which Idlibi relies for these claims was privileged, as Ollennu was acting in his capacity as counsel for Conroy. Because Ollennu‘s conduct at issue here was privileged, we conclude that the court properly found that these claims were barred by the litigation privilege. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the court as to its dismissal of Idlibi‘s claims of negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The judgment is reversed only with respect to the dismissal of the abuse of process and malicious prosecution claims in counts one and three and the case is remanded for further proceedings according to law; the judgment is affirmed in all other respects.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.