Ammar I. v. Evelyn W.

Citations

• 227 Conn. App. 827

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his petition for third-party visitation with three minor children, with respect to whom his parental rights previously had been terminated. Held: 1. The trial court properly determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdic- tion over the petition; it was not disputed that Connecticut was not the home state of the children pursuant to the applicable statutes (§§ 46b- 115a and 46b-115k) when the plaintiff commenced this child custody proceeding, as the children had lived with the defendant in North Caro- lina for more than six months before this proceeding commenced, and, because North Carolina possessed home state jurisdiction over visitation petitions involving the children, the trial court did not have jurisdiction pursuant to § 46b-115k (a) (3). 2. The plaintiff could not prevail on his alternative claim that the trial court improperly concluded that the accidental failure of suit statute (§ 52- 592) did not apply in the present case; because § 52-592 operates to toll a statute of limitations, a necessary prerequisite to its application is the existence of a statute of limitations that would otherwise bar the cause of action at issue, and, here, the plaintiff did not identify any statute of limitations pertaining to petitions for third-party visitation and the defendant did not raise a statute of limitations defense. Submitted on briefs March 5—officially released September 10, 2024