Manufacturers & Traders Trust Co. v. Virgulak

Citations

• 233 Conn. App. 329

Syllabus

The defendant property owner, against whom the plaintiff bank sought to foreclose on a judgment lien for unpaid property taxes, appealed from the trial court's judgment of foreclosure by sale following its granting of the plaintiff's motion to dismiss her special defenses and a three count counter- claim sounding in vexatious litigation. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly granted the plaintiff's motion to dismiss her coun- terclaim on the grounds of res judicata and collateral estoppel. In a prior foreclosure action brought by the plaintiff, the court rendered judgment for the defendant on all counts of the complaint except the plaintiff's claim of unjust enrichment for property tax payments that the plaintiff had made on the property. Held: The trial court properly dismissed the defendant's special defenses because they constituted impermissible collateral attacks on the judgment in the prior action, as each special defense sought to contest the validity and enforceability of the judgment in the prior action, a judgment which the defendant did not appeal or seek to open, and none of those special defenses established an entirely obvious lack of jurisdiction on the part of the render- ing court, such that they were not subject to dismissal. The trial court improperly concluded that the defendant's counterclaim was barred by res judicata, as a claim alleging vexatious litigation may not be brought in the same action as that which the defendant claims is vexatious, and, therefore, the defendant was required to wait until the prior action had terminated before bringing her vexatious litigation claims. The trial court improperly concluded that the doctrine of collateral estoppel was applicable to the defendant's counterclaim, as none of the issues that the defendant sought to litigate by way of her counterclaim were determined by the court in the prior action, nor were they necessary to its decision. Argued April 23—officially released June 24,