DocketNumber: No. CV97 034 38 12
Citation Numbers: 1998 Conn. Super. Ct. 4449
Judges: SKOLNICK, JUDGE.
Filed Date: 4/20/1998
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 4/18/2021
"The purpose of a motion to strike is to contest . . . the legal sufficiency of the allegations of any complaint . . . to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. In ruling on a motion to strike, the court is limited to the facts alleged in the complaint. The court must construe the facts in the complaint most favorably to the plaintiff. . . . If facts provable in the complaint would support a cause of action, the motion to strike must be denied." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Faulkner v. United Technologies Corp.,
"The law only imposes liability for an injury that is a foreseeable consequence of the failure to exercise reasonable care." Reed v. Norwalk Hospital, Superior Court, judicial district of Stamford/Norwalk at Stamford, Docket No. 146525 (August 27, 1996, Stevens, J.) (
Based upon these three considerations, the motion to strike paragraph sixteen is denied. The plaintiff's alleged relapse into substance abuse due to her back injury was caused in substantial part by the defendants' alleged negligence. This alleged relapse was a foreseeable harm of the same general nature which results from the type of medical treatment the plaintiff required due to her injuries. Finally, there is a clear chain of causation between the defendants' negligence and the plaintiff's injury.
However, the motion to strike paragraphs seventeen and eighteen is granted. The plaintiff's loss of custody of her children and loss of filial consortium are too remote and tenuous to be considered a foreseeable consequence of the defendants' negligence. Further, the plaintiff's loss of custody of her children was not substantially caused by the defendants' negligence, but is at least one step removed from the physical injuries which are alleged to have caused the plaintiff to lose custody of her children.
Accordingly, the motion to strike is denied as to paragraph sixteen, but granted as to paragraphs seventeen and eighteen.1
DAVID W. SKOLNICK, JUDGE