American Tax Funding, LLC v. Design Land Developers of Newtown, Inc.

Citations

• 200 Conn. App. 837

Syllabus

The plaintiff, A Co., sought to foreclose municipal tax liens on certain real property owned by the defendant estate. After A Co. had commenced this action, R Co. was substituted as the plaintiff and filed an amended complaint. Thereafter, the estate was defaulted for failure to plead, and the trial court granted R Co.'s motion for judgment and rendered judgment in part in favor of R Co. as against the estate as to certain counts of the amended complaint. On the estate's appeal to this court, held that the estate's appeal was dismissed as moot, there having been no practical relief that that this court could grant, as the judgment as against the estate was a nullity because the estate was not a legal entity that could be sued, and, therefore, the trial court did not have jurisdiction to render a judgment against it; moreover, vacation of the judgment as against the estate was appropriate under the circumstances of this case because the estate did not cause the appeal to be moot and it would prevent the judgment from spawning legal consequences and clear the path for future relitigation of the issues. Argued December 4, 2019—officially released October 20, 2020