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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

§ 46a-58

Citation
§ 46a-58
Parent Document
Connecticut Judicial Branch v. Gilbert, 343 Conn. 90 (2022)
Jurisdiction
Connecticut (state)
Effective Date
2022-04-26

Other Sections in This Document (128)

Full Text

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The trial court appeared to rest its resolution of this
          issue on its view that the limitations imposed by the
          referee—allowing the complainant to argue for, sub-
          stantiate, and recover only garden-variety emotional
          distress damages—were not sufficiently stringent as
          sanctions for what the court saw as violations of a
          discovery order. Neither the facts nor the law supports
          that conclusion.
             To begin with, although the complainant clearly did
          not fully comply with the discovery request for the
          production of her medical records, she also did not
          actually violate any discovery order found in the record
          before the commission. The branch issued a broadly
          worded request for medical records. In response, none
          was provided. When the complainant submitted a list
          of witnesses containing the names of medical care pro-
          viders, the branch objected to those witnesses. Although
          the dispute was apparently addressed off the record, it
          appears from the branch’s briefing before the commis-
          sion and from the referee’s statements at the hearing
          that the complainant would be allowed, in essence, to
          opt either to produce her full medical records or to
          decline to do so and to seek only garden-variety emo-
          tional distress damages. She chose the latter course.33
          The branch has not directed our attention to anything
          in the record suggesting that the referee issued an
          unconditional order requiring production of the records.
             Nevertheless, the referee’s order limiting the com-
          plainant to garden-variety emotional distress damages,
          although not denominated a sanction by the referee,
          could fairly be viewed as a sanction, in that the order
          penalizes the complainant’s failure to comply with a
          proper discovery demand by limiting her ability to
            33
               By later presenting hearing testimony relating to her medical treatment,
          the complainant did not comply with the evidentiary limitations that accom-
          panied her choice to seek only garden-variety emotional distress damages.
          See part III C of this opinion.
April 26, 2022                 CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL                                    Page 77