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STAUDINGER v. BARRETT6/28/1988
The plaintiff, Robert S. Staudinger, Sr., brought this action as administrator of the estate of his son, Robert S. Staudinger, Jr., to recover damages for wrongful death due to the alleged negligence of the defendants, Peter Barrett, Roger Connor, John Basile and the town of Bethel. The plaintiff claimed that the one vehicle accident in which his son died was caused by the high speed pursuit by Bethel Police detectives, Barrett and Connor, of the vehicle his son was driving. The jury returned a general verdict for the defendants, the plaintiff having failed to request that interrogatories be submitted to the jury. The plaintiff appeals from the judgment on the verdict, claiming that the trial court erred (1) in refusing to charge the jury that a violation of the Bethel police department's policy governing high speed automobile chases was negligence per se, and (2) in denying the plaintiff's motion for a directed verdict on the defendants' special defense of contributory negligence. Because of the general verdict rule we find no error.
The material facts of this tragic accident are not in dispute. On the evening of September 10, 1982, shortly before 9:50 p.m., Barrett and Connor were on patrol in an unmarked police car. Barrett was driving. They were proceeding west on route 6 in Bethel when Barrett noticed a maroon Chevrolet El Camino traveling east on the same road. An El Camino is a vehicle that has a cab like the front of a passenger car and a cargo area like a pickup truck. Barrett observed that there were some teenaged boys riding in the cargo area and hanging over the sides. He did not see the driver. He made a u-turn to follow the El Camino so he could issue a warning to the driver to keep his passengers inside the vehicle or to stop them from moving around. Before Barrett reached the other car, it made a u-turn, proceeded west on route 6 and entered a shopping plaza. Barrett followed. The El Camino continued to the area
behind the stores. When it did not reappear, Barrett drove the police car to the rear of the stores from the opposite direction. He stopped the car about fifty feet from the El Camino. Connor engaged a red flashing light and placed it on the dashboard while Barrett turned on the car's red grill lights and switched the siren on and off several times. At that point, the El Camino abruptly drove toward the police vehicle, swerved and almost hit it. It then traveled over a grassy area and sped out of the parking lot.
Barrett pursued the El Camino through Bethel and into Newtown, over a distance of five miles. During the chase, both cars attained speeds as high as seventy to seventy-five miles per hour and, at all times, were traveling well above the posted speed limits. In addition to speeding, the El Camino crossed solid lines, passed other vehicles in no passing zones and went through a stop sign and a red light.
About halfway through the chase, Connor was able to read the El Camino's license plate number. He radioed the number to the dispatcher at the Bethel police department. Before the El Camino crashed, the dispatcher had obtained the name and address of the car's owner and had determined that it had not been reported stolen. She was instructed by another police officer that she should wait for Connor or Barrett to request this information. Neither officer asked for it, thus, she never transmitted it to them.
Further on, the El Camino stopped at an intersection and the police car pulled alongside it on the left. Connor attempted to get out of the car but the El Camino drove toward it and Barrett had to back up the police car to avoid a collision. The El Camino again fled and Barrett resumed the pursuit. Finally, the vehicle
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