A Connecticut Law Blog

I don’t know what problem the legislature was trying to solve when it passed this law in 1949:

No person shall make and sell, or make and offer for sale, any vinegar without conspicuously branding, stenciling or painting, upon the head of the barrel, cask, keg or package containing the same, the name of the maker, his residence, the place of manufacture and the true name of the kind of vinegar contained therein as “cider vinegar”, “wine vinegar”, “malt vinegar” or “wood acid vinegar”… Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 21a-26

The penalty for a violation of this section shall be fined not more than fifty dollars for the first offense and for each subsequent offense not more than one hundred dollars.

Presumably this law requires the home residence of the vinegar maker to appear on vinegar labels. I wonder if anyone has been fined for a violation of this statute in the past 50 years?

File this under answers to questions that you weren’t asking.

I tried my first case as a certified legal intern for the State’s Attorneys’ Office in Meriden.

The defendant had no idea what was in store for her.

One of the best things about interning for the Connecticut State’s Attorneys’ Office in a G.A. is that they let you do things - like try traffic infractions.

Traffic court trials are often the bain of a prosecutors existence. He who draws short straw ends up trying a traffic infraction case.

Anyway, that morning I got my case. It was a woman charged with disobeying a stop sign. I diligently prepared my case, researched the law, and had my facts down cold.

The defendant represented herself at trial and she never stood a chance.

I approached the trial as if I was trying a death penalty case. My line of questioning on cross-examination could best have been described as intense.

After about 15 minutes of questioning, I rested my case.  I had 3 witnesses take the stand: the police officer, the defendant and the defendant’s son.

I made a passionate closing argument about how the State had met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that this woman had disobeyed a stop sign. I wish there was a transcript.

As I awaited the verdict, I looked up at the magistrate who was clearly amused at the level of zeal that I displayed.

When he convicted the woman of running the stop sign - I was overjoyed. I won my first trial and the residents of Meriden were sent a clear message: obey stop signs and beware of legal interns in traffic court.

I love reading adverse possession decisions in Connecticut.

These cases are often hard fought by warring neighbors. Compromise is often not an option because the level of disdain is so high between the parties.  

If fences make for good neighbors adverse possesion cases certainly do not. Unless of course the fence is at the heart of an adverse possesion case. 

Most broadly defined, adverse possession, is a method of acquiring title to real property without compensation by possession for a statutory period of time under certain conditions. Black’s Law Dictionary.

In Connecticut, to acquire title to land by adverse possession a claimant must oust an owner of possession and keep such owner out without interruption for 15 years by an open visible and exclusive possession under a claim of right with the intent to use the property as his own without the consent of the owner.

In Brusseau v. Soper, 2008 WL 1914248 (Leuba, JTR.)  a party prevailed in an adverse possesion action when he proved that starting in 1988 the defendant added 100 yards of fill to an area that was 66 feet long and 25 feet wide. The defendant also planted trees and maintained a wood pile on the disputed area.

The plaintiff argued that the woods between the plaintiff’s house and the wood pile made the defendants activity less visible to the plaintiffs.

JTR Leuba did not buy the plaintiff’s argument and found the following:

These activities were not minor or subtle.  Adding 100 yards of fill and regrading cannot be done in a clandestine manner.

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that JTR Leuba got it right.