Black Rock Gardens, LLC v. Berry

Citations

• 224 Conn. App. 379

Syllabus

The plaintiff landlord sought, by way of summary process, to regain posses- sion of certain premises leased to the defendant tenant. The defendant filed a special motion to dismiss pursuant to the anti-SLAPP statute (§ 52-196a), arguing that the plaintiff violated his first amendment rights, right of association, and right to petition the government by filing a fraudulent and frivolous summary process action to evict him. The trial court denied the motion, and the defendant appealed to this court. The plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss the defendant's appeal, claiming that the trial court's denial of the defendant's special motion to dismiss was not an appealable final judgment. Held that this court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the defendant's appeal, and, accordingly, the appeal was dismissed: the defendant failed to assert a colorable claim that would entitle him to an immediate review of the trial court's denial of his special motion to dismiss pursuant to § 52-196a because none of the allegations in the plaintiff's complaint was based on the defendant's exercise of his right of free speech, to petition the government, or of association, as the complaint made clear that the summary process action was predicated solely on the defendant's alleged failure to pay rent owed to the plaintiff and the fact that the written lease agreement between the parties had lapsed and had not been renewed, and the complaint did not contain any allegations about things the defendant said or communicated or about other actions that would otherwise implicate the defendant's right of free speech, to petition the government, or of association, as those terms were understood under § 52-196a; moreover, the defendant's allegation that the summary process action was motivated by a complaint he had filed against the plaintiff with the state's Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities did not transform the action into a claim that was based on the defendant's exercise of his rig