LendingHome Funding Corp. v. REI Holdings, LLC

Citations

• 227 Conn. App. 786

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to foreclose a mortgage on certain real property owned by the defendant R Co. The defendant H Co. was a junior lienholder. The trial court rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure. Before the judgment of strict foreclosure was recorded in the trial court file and notice issued to counsel, H Co. filed a motion for judgment of foreclosure by sale, on which the trial court never ruled. Thereafter, the law days passed, and the plaintiff recorded the passing of title. More than two years later, H Co. reclaimed the motion for judgment of foreclosure by sale, which was eventually marked off short calendar. H Co. also filed a motion to open the judgment, which the trial court denied. On H Co.'s appeal to this court, held: 1. H Co. could not prevail on its claim that the trial court, in denying its motion to open, improperly concluded that it was not entitled to relief pursuant to statute (§ 49-15) because absolute title to the property had vested in the plaintiff: no appellate stay was in effect when the law days passed, such that the law days were legally effective, and, without redemption, absolute title to the property vested in the plaintiff, thereby precluding the defendant from obtaining relief pursuant to § 49-15; more- over, the filing of the motion for judgment of foreclosure by sale did not operate to extend the appellate stay vis-à-vis the judgment of strict foreclosure, which expired well before the law days passed, as the motion did not satisfy the requirements of the relevant rule of practice (§ 63-1 (c) (1)). 2. H Co. could not prevail on its claim that the trial court, in denying its motion to open, failed to consider that, even if absolute title to the property had vested in the plaintiff, the court had inherent, continuing jurisdiction to open the judgment as a result of the plaintiff's failure to comply with the court's Uniform Foreclosure Standing Orders; although H Co.'s claim for equitable relief in the motion to open was colorab