J. M. v. E. M.

Citations

• 216 Conn. App. 814

Syllabus

The plaintiff landlord sought, by way of summary process, to regain posses- sion of certain residential property that was occupied by the defendant tenant. The plaintiff and the defendant were parties to a written, one year lease that commenced on March 1, 2021. The defendant paid her rent in full until June, 2021, when she paid only a partial amount. She included with her partial payment an explanation that she had deducted the cost of recent air conditioning repairs from her rent payment. Both parties agreed that it was the plaintiff's obligation to repair the air conditioning if it was not working. The defendant acknowledged that she did not contact the plaintiff to request the repair but explained that she chose to proceed as she did because she was uncomfortable contacting the plaintiff in light of a civil protective order that she had obtained against the plaintiff. The plaintiff subsequently served the defendant with a notice to quit on July 21, 2021, with a quit date of August 21, 2021. The notice to quit included a use and occupancy disclaimer that stated that payments tendered after the quit date would be accepted for use and occupancy only and not for rent. The plaintiff subsequently commenced the summary process action on September 1, 2021, alleging that the plaintiff had failed to pay rent due on June 1, 2021. The defendant filed an answer that raised several special defenses, including, inter alia, that all rent had been paid to the plaintiff. Thereafter, the trial court issued a memorandum of decision, in which it found that the defendant tendered monthly payments from July through September, 2021, on time and in full; that each check had ''rent'' written in the memo field; and that, although the plaintiff did not immediately deposit the checks for July, August, and September, the plaintiff eventually deposited them into his account. The court further found that, although the plaintiff did not accept the subsequent rent payments until after the quit d