## Facts

- The City of Bridgeport, Connecticut owned and maintained an athletic field used for youth sports.
- The City permitted North End Eastern Little League Baseball of Bridgeport, Inc. (North End Baseball League of Bridgeport, Inc.) (NELL) to conduct youth baseball games on the field.
- Christopher Peeples, a minor, was injured during a NELL game when he fell into a pothole (hole) in the outfield.
- Camilla Peeples, as mother and next friend of Christopher, brought a negligence action against NELL and the City, and also named the City’s Director of Parks and Recreation, Charles Carroll, and an individual defendant, Scott Moutinho.
- Pretrial evidence showed that the City had practices for inspecting and maintaining the field, including addressing hazards such as holes.
- Pretrial evidence also showed NELL had a pre-game field inspection policy intended to identify and address unsafe conditions before play.
- Each defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing the record showed no triable negligence claim (and, as to the municipal defendants, that governmental immunity barred liability).

## Issues

1. Whether the City of Bridgeport and Charles Carroll were entitled to summary judgment under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-557n(a)(2)(B) because inspection and maintenance of the field were discretionary governmental acts, rather than ministerial tasks.
2. Whether NELL, as a permittee using the field for its games and having a pre-game inspection policy, owed a duty of reasonable care to players such that breach and causation were for the jury.
3. Whether the summary-judgment record contained evidence from which a jury could find that Scott Moutinho personally owed and breached a duty that caused Christopher Peeples’s injury.

## Decision

- The court denied NELL’s motion for summary judgment because NELL’s status as the permitted user during games, together with its pre-game inspection policy, could support a finding that NELL owed duties regarding field safety and that a jury could find those duties were negligently performed.
- The court denied the City of Bridgeport’s and Charles Carroll’s motion for summary judgment because the evidence, viewed favorably to plaintiffs, raised a triable question that the City’s inspection/maintenance obligations were ministerial (not discretionary) under City policies and practices, defeating immunity at the summary-judgment stage.
- The court granted Scott Moutinho’s motion for summary judgment because the record did not present a genuine issue of material fact supporting personal negligence liability as to him.

## Legal Principles

- Summary judgment is proper only when the evidence shows no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.
- Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-557n(a)(2)(B), a municipality is not liable for negligent acts or omissions that involve the exercise of judgment or discretion in carrying out an official function, but municipal liability may exist for negligently performed ministerial acts.
- A municipal task may be ministerial when a rule, policy, or directive requires performance in a prescribed way, leaving no meaningful choice about whether and how the task must be carried out.
- A private sports league using municipal premises may owe a duty of reasonable care to participants based on its right to use and control the premises during its event and based on safety steps it undertakes, such as a pre-game inspection policy.
- A claim against an individual defendant requires evidence tying that person’s own acts or omissions to a duty, breach, and causation; without such evidence, summary judgment may enter for that individual even if claims proceed against other defendants.

## Conclusion

In Peeples v. North End Baseball League of Bridgeport, Inc., the Connecticut Superior Court held that the youth league’s permit-based use of the field and its pre-game inspection policy created triable questions about a duty to address field hazards, and that the City’s inspection and maintenance obligations could be found ministerial rather than discretionary, preventing governmental-immunity judgment as a matter of law; however, the court granted summary judgment to the individual defendant because the record did not show sufficient evidence of personal negligence.


Peeples v. North End Baseball League of Bridgeport, Inc., 2016 WL 6499072 (2016)