State v. Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton

The dispositive issue in these appeals is the propriety of the trial court’s refusal to allow the jury to consider whether the defendants were liable to the plaintiff under a theory of absolute public nuisance. The defendants, Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton and Knappen-Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy,1 designed and supervised the construction of the Mianus River bridge (the bridge) on the Connecticut Turnpike in Greenwich. On June 28,1983, a span of the bridge collapsed into the Mianus River. The plaintiff, the state of Connecticut, brought actions against the defendants seeking damages for…