MUNICIPAL LAW: Appellate Court affirms judgment for plaintiff in defective highway action

The plaintiff was allegedly walking in a street since there was no sidewalk.  She allegedly stepped into a pothole and tripped and fell.  Trial court found that the plaintiff was walking as carefully as she could and as close as possible to the edge of the road and was not contributorily negligent.  The Court found that the pothole was not in the middle of the road as claimed by the defendant, Town of Stratford.

To prevail on a defective highway action, a plaintiff must establish that the highway was defective, that the defendant actually knew about the defect or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known about it, that the defendant failed to remedy the defect although it had sufficient time, and that the defect constituted the sole proximate cause of the injuries.  On appeal, the Connecticut Appellate Court holds that there was ample evidence to support the trial court’s conclusion that the plaintiff was not contributorily negligent.

Artese v. Town of Stratford, AC 36965 (September 15, 2015)