ELOISE MARINOS et al. v. DAVID POIROT et al., SC 18924

Judicial District of Hartford

 CUTPA; Ascertainable Loss Requirement; Whether Summary Judgment was Properly Rendered on CUTPA Claims Because Plaintiff Failed to Produce Itemization of Claimed CUTPA Damages. The plaintiff's decedent, Steven F. Meo, was the sole proprietor of a law firm.  Following Meo's death, the plaintiff brought this action individually and as the administratrix of the decedent's estate, alleging that Meo's associate and another attorney misappropriated business from the firm.  The plaintiff asserted Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) claims against each defendant, alleging that they conspired to appropriate two traumatic brain injury cases that originated in Meo's office.  The trial court rendered summary judgment in favor of the defendants.  As to the CUTPA claims, the court noted that the plaintiff had not met her burden of presenting facts giving rise to a genuine issue of fact that she and the estate suffered an ascertainable loss as a result of the defendants' conduct.  The court observed that, while damages in a specific dollar amount need not be proven to recover under CUTPA, the damages nonetheless must be measurable.  The court reviewed the plaintiff's responses to the interrogatories and requests for production and found that the responses did not contain any itemization of damages that supported the CUTPA claims.  On appeal, the Appellate Court (122 Conn. App 693) agreed with the trial court that the plaintiff failed to produce any itemization of her claimed CUTPA damages, and, accordingly, it affirmed the trial court's judgment.  The Supreme Court will decide whether the Appellate Court properly upheld the summary judgment rendered in favor of the defendants on the ground that the plaintiff failed to produce an itemization of her claimed CUTPA damages.