Herron v. Daniels

Citations

• 208 Conn. App. 75

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover the security deposit he had paid to the defendant landlord in connection with a one year lease of a single-family home. A few months after the start of the lease term, the plaintiff purchased his own home and attempted to terminate the lease, offering to vacate the premises and pay the remaining rent due under the agree- ment. The defendant refused the offer, and the plaintiff agreed to con- tinue to pay rent and to fulfill his other obligations under the lease throughout the remainder of its term, despite vacating the premises. After the leasehold expired, the defendant sent the plaintiff an account- ing of the security deposit, indicating that no portion of it would be returned due to unpaid rent and fees due under the lease and expenses incurred to repair alleged damages to the premises, and that the plaintiff owed the defendant additional funds for damages that exceeded the amount of the security deposit. The trial court found in favor of the plaintiff in part on his complaint and on the defendant's counterclaim, and the defendant appealed and the plaintiff cross appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court did not err when it awarded the plaintiff double damages as a result of the defendant's failure to return a portion of the security deposit: the trial court's determination that certain of the defendant's charges for damages to the premises were pretextual was not erroneous, as the court credited the plaintiff's testimony that he had hired a cleaning service after he vacated the premises and found the defendant's testi- mony relating to the claimed repair expenses unconvincing; moreover, although the trial court's finding that the charge for the replacement of the furnace filter was pretextual was erroneous, such finding did not undermine its conclusions regarding the disputed charges nor did it impact the judgment rendered; furthermore, the trial court's award of statutory damages equal to double the entire amount of the p