Opinion
In this action for legal malpractice, the plaintiffs, Agnes Targonski and Krzysztof Targonski, appeal from the summary judgment rendered against them in favor of the defendant, Walter A. Clebowicz, an attorney, on the ground that their action is barred by the general three year tort statute of limitations, General Statutes § 52-577.
The following facts and procedural history are necessary to our disposition of this appeal. Between April 18, 2004, and June 9, 2004, the defendant represented the plaintiffs with respect to a real estate transaction to purchase an undeveloped building lot on Indian Hill Road in Higganum (premises) together with a right-of-way over an adjacent lot retained by the seller, Karen Delahunty, for use as a driveway (right-of-way). On April 18,2004, the plaintiffs and Delahunty entered into a written purchase and sale agreement with respect to the premises and the right-of-way (agreement), which was conditioned expressly upon both Delahunty’s provision of the right-of-way and the plaintiffs’ promise to build a house on the premises of more than 2000 square feet. Delahunty retained attorney Thomas E. Cronan to represent her in connection with the transaction.
When, on June 9, 2004, the defendant conducted the closing on behalf of the plaintiffs, he was aware of the terms and conditions of the agreement, including, inter alia, its right-of-way contingency.
On several occasions after June 9, 2004, Cronan contacted the defendant in writing to advise him that the parties had not yet incorporated the right-of-way into the deed and to propose specific steps that might be taken to cure the problem.
The plaintiffs subsequently constructed a house on the premises. Because the plaintiffs built their house too close to the setback line, however, the town required the plaintiffs to acquire additional property from Delahunty in order to conform to zoning regulations and obtain a certificate of occupancy. Thus, on August 25, 2005, the plaintiffs purchased an additional 48.61 square feet of property from Delahunty, who was still represented by Cronan.
In October, 2005, on the basis of the defendant’s alleged misrepresentation concerning the creation of
On August 1, 2008, nearly three years after the plaintiffs finished building the stone wall, the defendant received a letter from Cronan claiming that it had been improperly constructed on Delahunty’s property.
On March 6, 2009, the plaintiffs filed the complaint in the present action against the defendant, claiming in relevant part that his conduct constituted negligence
On January 31, 2011, the defendant moved for summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ claims against him,
The plaintiffs were the only parties to submit evidence on the motion. Appended to their objection, such evidence included: (1) certified copies of excerpts from their own and the defendant’s depositions in this case; (2) a copy of the 2004 purchase and sale agreement and deed; (3) copies of all written communications from Cronan to the defendant from November 9, 2004, through October 1, 2008; and (4) a copy of the defendant’s letter to Cronan, dated September 29, 2008.
The court heard argument on the motion on April 4, 2011. The court subsequently granted the motion,
“This court’s review of a trial court’s granting of a motion for summary judgment is plenary in nature. . . . Our task is to determine whether [the trial court’s] conclusions are legally and logically correct and find support in the facts that appear in the record. . . . Practice Book § 17-49 provides that summary judgment shall 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. In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the trial court
“Although allowing a statute of limitations defense may result in meritorious claims being foreclosed, that must be so. A statute of limitations promotes two important interests: (1) it reflects a policy of law, as declared by the legislature, that after a given length of time a [defendant] should be sheltered from liability and furthers the public policy of allowing people, after the lapse of a reasonable time, to plan their affairs with a degree of certainty, free from the disruptive burden of protracted and unknown potential liability . . . and (2) to avoid the difficulty in proof and record keeping which suits involving older [claims] impose.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Flannery v. Singer Asset Finance Co., LLC, supra, 128 Conn. App. 513.
The claims underlying the plaintiffs’ present action were based on negligence, and thus were subject to the three year limitation period set forth in § 52-577.
Here, the defendant’s alleged acts and omissions at and immediately after the June 9,2004 closing triggered the statute of limitations. The trial court found that the plaintiffs did not commence this action until February 26, 2009, which was outside of the three year limitation period prescribed by § 52-577. Accordingly, because more than three years had passed since the date of the defendant’s alleged negligence before the plaintiffs served their complaint, the plaintiffs’ claims can survive the defendant’s challenge under the statute of limitations only if the statute was tolled before the limitation period expired.
On appeal, the plaintiffs claim that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the statute of limitations was tolled in this case by the continuing course
“The question of whether a party’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations is a question of law, which this court reviews de novo. . . . The issue, however, of whether a party engaged in a continuous course of conduct that tolled the running of the statute of limitations is a mixed question of law and fact. . . . We defer to the trial court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Lee v. Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman, LLP, supra, 128 Conn. App. 256-57.
Section 52-577 “is a statute of repose in that it sets a fixed limit after which the tortfeasor will not be held liable and in some cases will serve to bar an action before it accrues. . . . Nonetheless, [w]hen the wrong sued upon consists of a continuing course of conduct, the statute does not begin to run until that course of conduct is completed.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Vanliner Ins. Co. v. Fay, 98 Conn. App. 125, 139-40, 907 A.2d 1220 (2006).
“[I]n order [t]o support a finding of a continuing course of conduct that may toll the statute of limitations there must be evidence of the breach of a duty that remained in existence after commission of the original wrong related thereto. That duty must not have terminated prior to commencement of the period allowed for bringing an action for such a wrong .... Where we have upheld a finding that a duty continued to exist after the cessation of the act or omission relied upon, there has been evidence of either a special relationship between the parties giving rise to such a continuing
Here, the parties agree that the allegations of the plaintiffs’ complaint are sufficient to state a claim of legal malpractice based upon the defendant’s negligent drafting of the deed without providing for a right-of-way over the seller’s property. They also agree that the plaintiffs commenced this action more than three years after the alleged malpractice was committed. Accordingly, the plaintiffs’ appeal turns on our resolution of the second element of the continuing course of conduct doctrine, to wit: whether the defendant, by his conduct after the alleged malpractice, breached a continuing duty to the plaintiffs that was related to his initial wrong.
As general matter, once the attorney-client relationship ends, the prior representation does not give rise to any continuing duty. Id., 297. Thus, in Sanborn, this court held that “ [t]here is no tolling of statutes of limitations in either tort or contract actions for the failure of an attorney to tell a client that a document drafted by the attorney could be inaccurate because, once the
Here, then, if the trial court received competent evidence tending to show that, after negligently failing to include the right-of-way in the deed, the defendant learned of his negligence but failed to correct it when he had the opportunity to do so, it should have denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment if the evidence also showed that his opportunity to correct the negligence extended to a point less than three years before the commencement of this action.
In the present case, the plaintiffs in fact have presented evidence, in the form of written communications between the defendant and Cronan, tending to establish
On appeal, the defendant argues that the letter and faxes from Cronan to the defendant are unauthenticated
Before a document may be considered by the court in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, the proponent need only advance “evidence sufficient to support a finding” that the proffered evidence is what it is claimed to be. Conn. Code Evid. § 9-1 (a). A writing may be authenticated by an admission of the opposing party at a deposition. See id., commentary (a) (7); C. Tait & E. Prescott, Connecticut Evidence (4th Ed. 2008) § 9.2.1, pp. 621-22. Here, appended to their opposition to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the plaintiffs submitted a certified copy of the deposition of the defendant during which the defendant identified a letter and two faxes he had received from Cronan in 2004.
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings according to law.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
General Statutes § 52-577 provides: “No action founded upon a tort shall be brought but within three years from the date of the act or omission complained of.”
Because we agree with the plaintiffs that the evidence before the trial court raised a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the continuing course of conduct doctrine tolled the statute of limitations, we need not address their alternate claim for reversal of the judgment, which is based on the continuous representation doctrine.
At her deposition, Agnes Targonski stated that before the closing, she explained to the defendant: “I dropped off a purchase and sales agreement. And I’m buying land to build a house, and that the only thing, other than the normal stuff that [the defendant] does, whatever [the defendant] does, to look at page 3 [of the agreement], and then there are contingency things to go on . . . paperwork. To look at those contingencies, and make sure they’re in effect because I need to get into my house. I need the right-of-way to get into my house.”
At her deposition, Agnes Targonski stated that, at the conclusion of the closing, she “asked [the defendant] if he took care of the contingency, right-of-way, and the over 2000 square foot. And he’s, like, oh, I took care of it. And I said because I want an entrance to my house.”
These communications were marked as exhibits during the defendant’s deposition and identified by him as documents he had received in 2004.
The November 9, 2004 letter provided in relevant part: “I have attached a copy of a contract addendum whose provisions never made it into the deed.
“I have also attached an unexecuted easement/maintenance agreement . . . which I suggest we use for your clients as well.”
The December 7, 2004 letter provided in relevant part: “I have not received any response to my fax letter to you dated 11/9/04 ....
“Does that mean that your clients are not interested in a formal easement agreement?”
The December 22, 2004 letter provided in relevant part: “I write this letter with some regret but, the fact that my earlier faxes to your office . . . have met with no response, requires that I advise you that your clients will not ervjoy a right of way over my client’s lot unless and until we have resolved the issue of a written easement agreement.
“I am sorry to have to take this position but the absence of any response whatsoever to my earlier attempts to resolve this matter leave me no other choice.”
In her deposition, Agnes Targonski stated that, based on her recollection, the defendant did not represent the plaintiffs in their August 25, 2005 purchase of additional property.
In 2007, believing that they owned the right-of-way, the plaintiffs paved a driveway over Delahunty’s property.
The August 1, 2008 letter was addressed to the defendant and referred to the plaintiffs as the defendant’s clients.
These communications between the defendant and Cronan, dated 2008, were marked as exhibits during the defendant’s deposition and identified by him as documents he had received in 2008.
The plaintiffs’ revised complaint, dated June 10,2009, also alleged breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. On November 12, 2009, however, the court struck these counts and subsequently rendered judgment on them. They are not the subject of this appeal.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs also alleged that the defendant continuously represented them until 2008.
We note that the defendant’s January 7, 2011 answer alleged that the plaintiffs’ negligence and negligent misrepresentation counts were both barred by § 52-577. In his motion for summary judgment, however, the defendant claimed that § 52-577 barred the negligence count and General Statutes § 52-584 barred the negligent misrepresentation count. Section 52-584 provides: “No action to recover damages for injury to the person, or to real or personal property, caused by negligence, or by reckless or wanton misconduct, or by malpractice of a physician, surgeon, dentist, podiatrist, chiropractor, hospital or sanatorium, shall be brought but within two years from the date when the injury is first sustained or discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered, and except that no such action may be brought more than three years from the date of the act or omission complained of, except that a counterclaim may be interposed in any such action any time before the pleadings in such action are finally closed.” See footnote 18 of this opinion.
In his answer to the plaintiffs’ revised complaint, by way of special defenses, the defendant also alleged that the plaintiffs had failed to mitigate their damages and that their damages had resulted from their own negligence because they added improvements on Delahunty’s property, which would have been unauthorized even if the right-of-way had been included in the deed.
As an alternate ground for granting his motion for summary judgment, the defendant also argued that his alleged negligence, even if true, did not cause the plaintiffs’ damages because the unauthorized improvements at issue would have exceeded their use of Delahunty’s property had the right-of-way been included in the deed.
The parties disagree as to what statute of limitations applies to the negligent misrepresentation claim. Although the defendant claims that General Statutes § 52-584, which has a two year statute of limitations, applies to this claim, this court has held that “[ajctions for legal malpractice based
As an alternative to entering into an easement agreement with Dela-hunty, as suggested by Cronan, the plaintiffs could have sought to enforce the written purchase and sale agreement that the parties had signed prior to the closing, on which the statute of limitations would not have expired until April 18, 2010. See General Statutes § 52-576 (a) (“[n]o action ... on any contract in writing, shall be brought but within six years after the right of action accrues”); American Express Centurion Bank v. Head, 115 Conn. App. 10, 15-16, 971 A.2d 90 (2009) (“[t]he elements of a breach of contract action are the formation of an agreement, performance by one party, breach of the agreement by the other party and damages” [internal quotation marte omitted]); see also FCM Group, Inc. v. Miller, 300 Conn. 774, 799, 17 A.3d 40 (2011) (“[u]nder the doctrine of equitable conversion a contract for the sale of land vests equitable title in the vendee” [internal quotation marks omitted]).
The following is a transcript of the relevant portions of the defendant’s deposition:
“Q. Do you recall ever, back in 2004 to August of 2005, explaining to the [plaintiffs] that, in fact, they would not be receiving a right-of-way or an easement over this area that they expected?
“A. No, I do not.
“Q. Do you recall any correspondence at all from attorney Cronan indicating that that would not be forthcoming?
“A. There was some faxes from attorney Cronan.
“Q. And when were those—I’m looking at the next correspondence, which is September 23 [2008]. Is that the correspondence that you’re referring to? . . .
“A. No. There would be a 2004 correspondence. They’re in there. . . .
“Q. I have a September 23, 2008 correspondence. Then the next one is September 29, 2008. Then there’s a correspondence dated October 1, 2008.
“A. I believe there’s some attachments to that.
“Q. All right. There is a December 22, 2004 correspondence to you, a December 7, 2004 correspondence and [a November 4, 2004], Those three correspondences are all after the purchase of the property?
“A. Correct.”
