Fairfield Shores, LLC v. DeSalvo

Citations

• 205 Conn. App. 96

Syllabus

The plaintiff lessor sought to recover damages from the defendant university students and their parents for alleged damage to its rental property in connection with a lease entered into between the plaintiff and the defendant students, for which the defendant parents were guarantors. The rental rate for the period of the lease was $100,000 with a $10,000 security deposit. After the defendant students vacated the premises at the end of the lease term, the plaintiff claimed that they had caused damage to the premises that exceeded the amount of the $10,000 security deposit. In response, the defendants filed a counterclaim, alleging, inter alia, that the plaintiff violated the applicable security deposit statute (§ 47a-21), and that the $100,000 prepayment of rent constituted a secu- rity deposit for purposes of § 47a-21. Subsequently, the parties filed a signed, joint stipulation of facts with the trial court, which stated that, pursuant to the lease, the total security deposit was $10,000. Following a trial, the court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendants appealed to this court. Held: 1. The plaintiff could not prevail on its claim that the appeal was moot on the basis that the defendants did not challenge all independent bases for the trial court's judgment; because this court could provide meaning- ful relief to the defendants by remanding the matter for a consideration of their claim that the $100,000 prepayment of rent constituted a security deposit and, therefore, should have been held in escrow in an interest bearing account, the appeal was not moot. 2. The trial court improperly rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff on the basis of the application of the exemption in the statute (§ 47a-2) for certain lease arrangements incidental to housing for educational services from application of title 47a of the General Statutes when the plaintiff never pleaded the exemption and no evidence was presented at trial in support thereof: the pl