Ferreira v. Ward

Citations

• 224 Conn. App. 571

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to foreclose a judgment lien on certain real property of the defendant in 2018. After the trial court granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment as to liability, the plaintiff filed a motion for foreclosure by sale. The defendant objected and argued that the statutory homestead exemption ((Rev. to 2017) § 52-352) of $75,000 in effect at that time applied to preclude a judgment of foreclosure by sale of his primary residence. The court held a hearing on the plaintiff's motion in February, 2022, and rendered a judgment of foreclosure by sale, from which the defendant appealed to this court. After filing his appeal, the defendant discovered that the February, 2022 hearing had not been recorded. Pursuant to an order of this court, the trial court held another hearing in November, 2022, on the plaintiff's motion for a judgment of foreclosure by sale. At the November, 2022 hearing, the defendant's counsel argued, inter alia, that the legislature's amendment (P.A. 21-161, § 1) to the homestead exemption, effective October 1, 2021, and codified by statute (§ 52-352b (21)), which increased the homestead exemption to $250,000, applied to the defendant and precluded the sale of his primary residence. The plaintiff argued that it would be inappropriate for the court to apply the expanded homestead exemption because the statute had been revised after the commencement of the foreclosure action. The court issued an order affirming its rendering of a judgment of foreclosure by sale. Held: 1. This court concluded that the expanded homestead exemption of $250,000 pursuant to § 52-352b (21) applied retroactively to a postjudgment pro- ceeding in which a judgment lien was issued and recorded and an action to foreclose on the judgment lien was commenced at a time when the now repealed statute, § 52-352b (t), was in effect, but the judgment of foreclosure was rendered after the amended statute, § 52-352b (21), had become effective: the expanded homestead exe