Court Opinion

ID: 9645628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:30:27.998447+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:28.567835
License: Public Domain

Shea, J.
(dissenting). The majority opinion leaves me with a feeling of ambivalence. I applaud the early demise of the notion sponsored by Fritz v. Madow, 179 Conn. 269, 426 A.2d 268 (1979), of imposing upon trial judges, without benefit of light or landmark in the form of guidance from this court, the duty to ride herd upon errant jurors in awarding damages within the broad territory lying between excessiveness and inadequacy as a matter of law. I nevertheless decry the conclusion reached by the majority that a statute, General Statutes § 52-2'16a, the salutary purpose of which is commended in the opinion, must be declared unconstitutional in order to achieve this result. The only necessity dictating this novel approach to problems arising from a belated recognition of error on our part, ordinarily resolved by overruling the deviating precedent, seems to be a determination to foster the myth of our infallibility.
The fixation of the majority upon the use of the word “may” instead of “shall” in the portion of § 52-216a authorizing the trial court to deduct payments made by other tortfeasors from a verdict is the asserted rationale for the frustration of the *357legislative purpose which the opinion has achieved. In Fritz the “sole issue on appeal” was stated to be “whether a payment by one tortfeasor for a covenant not to sue that is in excess of the verdict subsequently returned against a joint tortfeasor necessarily entitles the joint tortfeasor to a reduction or erasure of the verdict as to damages.” (Emphasis added.) Fritz v. Madow, supra, 271. In correctly responding in the negative to that question the opinion in Fritz relied upon the use of “may” in contrast to “shall,” used elsewhere in the same statute, as indicating our intention to vest the broad discretion upon the trial judge found now to infringe upon the constitutional right of trial by jury. The dissenting opinion, Loiselle, J., recognized the existence of a narrower discretion under the statute “similar to the discretion exercised by the court when either an additur or a remittitur is made.” Id., 276. An additur or a remittitur is granted only when the trial judge in the exercise of this discretion determines that a verdict is inadequate or excessive as a matter of law. The use of “may” rather than “shall” in § 52-216a may readily be explained as indicating an intention on the part of the legislature that, where the deduction from a verdict of the payments received from a joint tortfeasor would leave a plaintiff with total compensation legally inadequate for the losses sustained, as viewed by the trial judge in exercising his limited discretion, no such deduction should be made. Fronczek v. Bella Bitta-Bassola, Inc., 165 Conn. 102, 103, 328 A.2d 680 (1973). The substitution of “shall” for “may” would have implied that the deduction must be made in any event without consideration of the adequacy of the total amount received by the plaintiff.
*358It is doubtful that, if the court had been aware of the invasion of the constitutional prerogative of the jury which the opinion in Fritz sanctioned, the same construction of § 52-216a would have been adopted. “We cannot impute to the Legislature an intent to pass an unconstitutional statute and a law should be construed, if it can reasonably be done, so as to make it valid.” State v. Muolo, 119 Conn. 323, 330, 176 A. 401 (1935). “A further corollary is that, where a statute reasonably admits of two constructions, one valid and the other invalid on the ground of unconstitutionality, courts should adopt the construction which will uphold the statute even though that construction may not be the most obvious one.” Adams v. Rubinow, 157 Conn. 150, 153, 251 A.2d 49 (1968). In State v. Doe, 149 Conn. 216, 229, 178 A.2d 271 (1962), these principles were employed to construe the word “shall” in a statute as permissive and not mandatory in order to avoid the question of its unconstitutionality which would otherwise be raised. I see no reason why this court, with the benefit of the hindsight we now possess, does not adopt the interpretation of § 52-216a, implicitly suggested by the dissenting opinion in Fritz, which would authorize a trial judge to refuse to make a deduction only where the plaintiff would be left with total compensation which is inadequate as a matter of law. Such a construction of the statute is wholly consistent with its language and statement of purpose, “ [t] o prohibit the reading of agreements not to sue or releases of claim before a jury, which often prejudices a party....”
I cannot join in declaring this modest procedural reform unconstitutional because of a jury trial infringement arising wholly from an interpretation *359of the statute which the majority opinion prefers to perpetuate rather than overrule the erroneous precedent which gave it birth.
I further do not understand the reason for remanding the case for another trial upon the issue of damages, which have already been determined by the jury in amounts which the trial court concluded lay within the broad range of trier discretion, neither inadequate nor excessive as a matter of law. The majority opinion at no point suggests that the trial court abused its discretion in reaching this conclusion. The complete invalidation of § 52-216a which the majority has achieved leaves the trial court with no discretion but to apply the common-law rule and deduct the payments made by the other defendants, a task which has already been accomplished. There is no disputed issue of fact in regard to the making of those payments or the amount of them. The remand for a new trial on the issue of damages would simply subject the parties to a needless retrial under an obsolete procedure where the amounts received from other tortfeasors would be disclosed to the jury. Even in the absence of $ 52-216a, a trial judge had discretion to separate the issues involving payments of other tortfeasors from the trial of liability and damages; Practice Book § 283; and, if the facts relating to such payments were not disputed, to resolve those issues without a jury. See Kosko v. Kohler, 176 Conn. 383, 387, 407 A.2d 1009 (1978).
For the reasons given above, I dissent.