21 Conn. App. 516 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1990
The plaintiff brought this action in negligence against the defendants, the driver and the owner of an automobile, seeking damages for injuries
The general verdict rule as enunciated in case law provides: “[I]f a jury renders a general verdict for one party, and no party requests interrogatories, an appellate court will presume that the jury found every issue in favor of the prevailing party.” Finley v. Aetna Life & Casualty Co., 202 Conn. 190, 202, 520 A.2d 208 (1987); Palmieri v. Intermagnetics General Corporation, 17 Conn. App. 488, 489, 553 A.2d 1167 (1989). “The rule applies whenever a verdict for one party could reasonably be rendered on one or more distinct causes of action . . . or distinct defenses.” (Citation omitted; emphasis omitted.) Palmieri v. Intermagnetics General Corporation, supra, 489-90. A defendant’s
The claimed instructional errors relate to the contributory negligence of the plaintiff, to the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries and to her claimed damages.
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The plaintiff claims that the trial court erred in giving the jury instructions on the doctrine of sudden emergency and in giving instructions pursuant to Secondino v. New Haven, 147 Conn. 672, 165 A.2d 598 (1960). She also claims that no instructions as to two of the elements of the defendants’ special defense of contributory negligence should have been given because there was no evidence introduced as to them. None of these claims was made at the conclusion of the charge and no exception was taken as to them. None of these claims merits review under either the plain error doctrine or State v. Evans, 165 Conn. 61, 69, 327 A.2d 576 (1973).
It does not appear in the record that the defendants raised the general verdict rule in the trial court, but the issue may be addressed, nevertheless. Hall v. Burns, 213 Conn. 446, 484 n.9, 569 A.2d 10 (1990).
The plaintiff had brought two prior lawsuits against other defendants alleging injuries to the same parts of her body as in this case. The Seeondino instruction; Secondino v. New Haven, 147 Conn. 672, 165 A.2d 598 (1960); related to the failure of the plaintiff to produce as witnesses the treating physicians who had treated or operated on the plaintiff in connection with her prior injuries.