Bilodeau v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co

In Bilodeau v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 44 Conn. App. 698, 691 A.2d 1115, cert. granted, 241 Conn. 907, 704 A.2d 795 (1997), the insurance policy required that any underinsured motorist claim be brought within two years from the date of the accident. Because that was not done, the trial court rendered summary judgment in favor of the defendant insurer, determining that the plaintiff's claim was time barred by the contractual limitation period. Id. In affirming the judgment of the trial court, we rejected the plaintiff's claim that 2 (e) of P.A. 93-77 applied retrospectively "to invalidate all two year contractual limitations in claims brought after May 20, 1993..." Id., 701. The Court reviewed the language of our Supreme Court in Bayusik v. Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co, which stated that 2 (e) does not apply retroactively, and we concluded that "if the legislature intended to invalidate all two year contractual limitations, it would have done so explicitly...Because the plaintiff's claim is not governed by P.A. 93-77, 3, and because 2 (e) does not apply to retroactively invalidate the contractual two year time limit, the plaintiff cannot avail herself of the six year statute of limitations." Id., 702.