Lending Home Funding Corp. v. REI Holdings, LLC

Citations

• 214 Conn. App. 703

Syllabus

The defendant T Co. appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court determining that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider T Co.'s motion to reargue or to reconsider the trial court's prior denial of T Co.'s motion to open a judgment of strict foreclosure. The defendant R Co. had defaulted on a promissory note and mortgage it executed in favor of the plaintiff concerning a parcel of real property. The trial court rendered judgment of strict foreclosure in favor of the plaintiff and set the law day to run on May 20, 2019. R Co. did not file a timely appeal from the judgment but, on May 15, 2019, filed a motion to open and vacate the judgment. The court denied R Co.'s motion to open and set a new law day for June 24, 2019. On June 10, 2019, pursuant to the applicable rule of practice (§ 11-11) and within the twenty day appellate stay period, R Co. filed a motion to reargue or to reconsider the court's denial of its motion to open. The court denied the motion to reargue on July 3, 2019, and notice of the court's ruling was sent to the parties on July 5, 2019. The plaintiff thereafter filed a certificate of foreclosure on the land records and quitclaimed the property to another entity. On December 7, 2020, pursuant to statute (§ 49-15), T Co. filed a motion to open and vacate the foreclosure judgment. T Co. claimed that title to the property had never passed to the plaintiff because the June 24, 2019 law day fell within the twenty day appellate stay period and the parties did not receive notice of the trial court's denial of R Co.'s motion to reargue until July 5, 2019. The trial court concluded that T Co.'s motion to open was moot because the filing of R Co.'s motion to reargue did not stay the June 24, 2019 law day and, thus, absolute title had vested in the plaintiff on the passing of the June 24, 2019 law day. Held that the trial court erred in determining that it was without subject matter jurisdiction to hear T Co.'s motion to open and vaca