Court Opinion

ID: 9463357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:04:06.131445+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:03.059663
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I dissent from the majority’s affirmance of the verdict on the ground that the trial judge erroneously instructed the jury that the defendant property owners had a continuing duty to inspect the property leased to Zacks.
Under the “public use” exception to the general rule absolving absentee landlords of responsibility for premises in the possession of the tenant, a landlord will be held liable where (1) the premises in question are open to the public and the landlord knew of same; and (2) the defect in question, which caused the third party’s injury was in existence at the commencement of the operative lease period; and (3) the landlord knew or should have known of the defect; and (4) the landlord knew that the tenant could not or would not remedy the defect. Webel v. Yale University, 125 Conn. 515, 7 A.2d 215 (1939); Corrigan v. Antupit, 131 Conn. 71, 37 A.2d 697 (1944).
Where, as here, the tenancy is month-to-month, the point in time which marks the commencement of the lease period is the first day of the month, or the day on which rent is due. Corrigan v. Antupit, supra, 131 Conn. 71, 37 A.2d at 699. This is true irrespective of the period of time that the tenant has been in possession on a month-to-month basis, Ibid., and it is also true irrespective of the existence of a prior written lease establishing the landlord-tenant relationship.1 Id., see also Conn.Gen.Stat. 47-22.
Pritchett’s (plaintiff) apparent theory of liability here was that the period of rain which preceded the date of the accident left the trails so wet as to present a serious hazard to riders, of which the landlord should have been aware (i. e., plaintiff was relying on constructive, not actual, notice). Under Connecticut law, plaintiff was required to show that the defective condition of the trail on which she fell was in existence at the beginning of the lease period— here, the beginning of July, 1968. The testimony given at trial included mention of wet weather conditions that had prevailed prior to the date of the accident on July 4. However, the record is completely devoid of any evidence that the alleged condition which caused the horse to slip was one which was in existence at the beginning of July. On the contrary, the only evidence given was to the effect that the trail was in good condition the day before the accident.
Since the plaintiff introduced no proof which bore on the condition of the trail at the beginning of the lease period, it is doubtful whether the jury verdict could have rested on anything but speculation and conjecture,2 even assuming that the jurors were correctly instructed on the law by the Court. The jurors were not, however, correctly instructed.
The Court erroneously instructed the jury that they could hold the landlord liable if they found that he had had a reasonable opportunity to discover the defect through inspection; the Court’s instruction imposed on the landlord a continuing duty to inspect *469the premises for defects arising during the tenancy. This is completely contrary to the rule in Webel under the “public use” exception.
The Court apparently took its charge almost verbatim from the language in a case called Pollack v. Gampel, 163 Conn. 462, 313 A.2d 73, 78 (1972). Pollack, however, dealt with a completely different form of landlord liability, namely, the direct liability of a landlord-to a tenant for injuries caused by negligent maintenance of property which remained in the landlord’s possession and control. Requiring the landlord to maintain the said property in a safe state through periodic inspection is, of course, entirely reasonable under circumstances where the landlord remains in possession. Where, however, a landlord has relinquished property to a tenant who is in exclusive possession, dominion, and control over it, such a duty of continuing inspection would be unreasonable and, accordingly, Connecticut law does not hold the landlord to such a duty. This is the rationale behind Webel and its progeny, which have limited the landlord’s liability to only those defects in existence at the time the landlord entered into the most recent lease (written or oral) with the tenant.
As a practical matter, the tenant here had been in continuous possession for a number of years. However, since the tenancy at the time of the accident was month-to-month, the defect need only have been in existence since the beginning of the month during which the accident occurred.
In either case, the Court’s charge in this case held the owners to a continuing duty of inspection which they clearly did not owe to the plaintiff under the law. The error in the Court’s charge is not a matter of mere linguistics: it goes to the heart of the owner’s liability, imposing upon them a duty which they clearly do not owe the plaintiff under the law.
Although the plaintiff has suffered bona fide injuries (albeit as the result of her poor judgment in choosing to ride on wet trails), and although the prolongation of litigation is not a pleasant prospect, nevertheless the jury verdict should be vacated, on the ground the trial court imposed upon the owners a duty which the law does not, namely, to inspect and rectify defects which arise after the commencement of a tenancy on property which is in the sole possession and control of the tenant. Such a duty is completely contrary to the law of Connecticut and to common sense as well.
I would vacate the judgment in plaintiff’s favor and remand for a new trial.

. Defendants’ argument that the month-to-month tenancy incorporated the terms of the prior written lease (which absolved the landlord of all liability) misses the point, since— even assuming, arguendo, that the terms of the lease were extended — the landlord could not, on public policy grounds, make a private contract to absolve him of duties owed to the public.

. Since conjecture and speculation are impermissible bases for a jury verdict, the verdict is susceptible to impeachment on this ground alone.