16-2082

Evanston Insurance Co. v. William Kramer & Associates, LLC

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 1

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 2

3

August Term, 2017 4

5

(Argued: August 18, 2017 Decided: June 11, 2019) 6

7

Docket No. 16

‐ 2082 8

9

_____________________________________ 10

11

Evanston Insurance Company, 12

13

Plaintiff

‐ Appellant

, 14

15

v. 16

17

William Kramer & Associates, LLC, 18

19

Defendant

‐ Appellee

. 20

_____________________________________ 21

22

Before: 23

24

PIERRE N. LEVAL, REENA RAGGI



### , and RAYMOND J. LOHIER, JR., 25

Circuit Judges

. 26

Plaintiff appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court 27

for the District of Connecticut (Michael P. Shea, J. ) granting judgment as a 28

matter of law in favor of Defendant. Plaintiff, successor

‐ in

‐ interest to an 29

insurer of property damaged by a hurricane, brought this negligence action 30

against Defendant, the Plaintiff’s loss adjustment agent, for failure to inform it 31

of a mortgage on the property. The suit was filed after the three

‐ year 32

limitations period imposed by § 52

‐ 577 of the Connecticut General Statutes. 33

At trial, a jury found that the limitation period was tolled by reason of the 34

Defendant’s continuing course of conduct. The district court set aside the 35

jury’s verdict, concluding that there was insufficient evidence to support 36 tolling. We certified to the Connecticut Supreme Court the question whether 37

the “trial evidence [was] legally sufficient to support the jury’s finding” of 38 tolling. The Connecticut Supreme Court held, Essex Ins. Co. v. William Kramer 39

& Assocs., LLC

, 331 Conn. 493 (2019), that the evidence was not legally 40

sufficient to support tolling. We now affirm the district court’s judgment. 412 1

MARY MASSARON, Plunkett Cooney, 2

Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Plaintiff

‐ 3

Appellant

. 4

5

RICHARD A. SIMPSON (Kimberly A. 6

Ashmore, on the brief ), Wiley Rein LLP, 7

Washington, DC, for Defendant

‐ Appellee

. 8

9

PER CURIAM: 10

Plaintiff Evanston Insurance Company (hereinafter the “Plaintiff” or 11

the “Insurer”) appeals from the entry of judgment by the United States 12

District Court for the District of Connecticut (Michael P. Shea, J .) in favor of 13

defendant William Kramer & Associates, LLC (hereinafter the “Defendant” or 14

the “Adjuster”), which served as the Insurer’s adjuster on a claim for 15

hurricane damage. The sole issue on appeal is whether the district court erred 16

in overturning the jury verdict and granting judgment as a matter of law in 17

favor of Adjuster on the basis of insufficiency of the evidence to support the 18

jury’s conclusion that the statute of limitations was tolled such that Insurer’s 19

claim was timely filed. We assume the parties ʹ familiarity with our earlier 20

opinion in this matter, which discusses at length the underlying facts, 21

procedural history, and arguments presented on appeal. Evanston Ins. Co. v. 22

William Kramer & Assocs., LLC

, 890 F.3d 40 (2d Cir. 2018). We repeat them here 233 only insofar as we think it necessary to understand the discussion that 1

follows. 2

After a jury trial, the jury found that the Adjuster had “engaged in a 3

continuing course of conduct such that [its] duty to [the Insurer] continued in 4

a manner that tolled the statute of limitations for enough time that [the 5

Insurer’s] claim is not time

‐ barred.” Essex Ins. Co. v. William Kramer & Assocs., 6

Inc.

, No. 3:13

‐ CV

‐ 1537 (MPS), 2016 WL 3198190, at *7 (D. Conn. June 8, 2016). 7

The jury awarded the Insurer damages for negligence in the amount of 8

$1,250,002.89. Id. at *1. 9

The Adjuster then moved for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to 10

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b), arguing that the record contained 11

insufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that a continuing course of 12

conduct had tolled the statute of limitations. The district court ruled that “no 13

reasonable jury could find, based on the evidence presented at trial, that the 14

continuing course of conduct doctrine renders [Evanston’s] claim timely,” id. 15

at *7, and entered judgment for the Adjuster. The Insurer timely appealed. 16

We found that Connecticut law was unclear as to the contours of the 17

doctrine that tolls a limitation period because of a continuing course of 184 conduct. Having the consent of the parties for certification of the controlling 1

question to the Connecticut Supreme Court, we asked for that Court’s 2

guidance on whether, under Connecticut law, the trial evidence was legally 3

sufficient to support the tolling of the limitation period through October 21, 4

2010, so as to render the Insurer’s claim timely. Evanston Ins. Co.

, 890 F.3d at 5

51. 6

The Connecticut Supreme Court accepted the certification, and on April 7

23, 2019, responded that “the evidence is not legally sufficient to toll the 8

statute of limitations on this factual record.” Essex Ins. Co. v. William Kramer & 9

Assocs., LLC

, 331 Conn. 493, 497 (2019). 10

The Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision resolves the controlling 11

question of Connecticut law. We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the 12

district court. 13