Dorfman v. Smith

Summary

The court affirmed dismissal of the plaintiff’s extracontractual claims because the litigation privilege deprived the court of subject matter jurisdiction over claims based on false or misleading litigation communications. The privilege applied to the implied-covenant and negligent-infliction claims because they challenged litigation conduct rather than the purpose of the proceeding, and to the CUTPA-CUIPA claim because it was based on allegedly false discovery responses and did not adequately allege a general business practice. Justice Ecker concurred in the CUTPA-CUIPA result but would have allowed the implied-covenant and negligent-infliction claims to proceed and cautioned against extending the majority’s reasoning to more robust systemic insurance-practice allegations.