Wood Smith Henning & Berman is proud to share that Partner Megan Michaud recently secured a complete summary judgment victory in a high stakes wrongful death action arising out of an incident in Middletown, Connecticut.
The matter involved the tragic death of a tenant who was found unresponsive in a bathtub of his apartment and later pronounced deceased. The plaintiff alleged that the property owner was liable for negligence per se, asserting that the building's hot water system was in a dangerous and defective condition and emitted excessively hot water that allegedly caused burns and triggered a fatal cardiac event.
Despite the significant potential value of the claim and challenging liability facts facing the insured, Michaud strategically focused the defense on two essential elements the plaintiff could not establish- notice and causation.
The defense moved for summary judgment, arguing that there was no evidence that the property owner had actual or constructive notice of any alleged defect in the hot water system. The motion further established that the plaintiff could not demonstrate that the alleged condition existed for a sufficient length of time such that it should have been discovered through reasonable inspection.
Equally critical was the causation argument. The defense demonstrated that expert testimony was required to connect the alleged hot water condition to the decedent's claimed burns and the alleged resulting heart attack. The plaintiff failed to produce any expert testimony to support that theory.
The court agreed and granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant, dismissing the case in its entirety.
"This was a case with substantial exposure and difficult optics," said Michaud. "By staying disciplined and focused on the elements the plaintiff was required to prove, we demonstrated that speculation cannot substitute for evidence."
This outcome highlights WSHB's continued success in defending high-stakes premises liability and wrongful death claims, particularly where careful legal scrutiny reveals critical evidentiary gaps.
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