Mathews v. Mathews

Citations

• 232 Conn. App. 571

Syllabus

The plaintiff, whose marriage to the defendant previously had been dis- solved, appealed from the judgment of the trial court denying his postdissolu- tion motion for contempt and granting the defendant's postdissolution motion for contempt. He claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly denied his motion because the defendant prevented him from retrieving certain of his property from the marital residence and wilfully violated court orders by disposing of that property. Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the plaintiff's postdisso- lution motion for contempt with respect to his claim that the defendant violated the court's order to provide him access to the marital residence to retrieve his personal property, as the court's property distribution orders were ambiguous as to whether the property at issue belonged to the plaintiff, and the record demonstrated that a dispute existed between the parties as to the ownership of that property. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the plaintiff's postdisso- lution motion for contempt with respect to his claim that the defendant violated the court's property distribution orders, as the court reasonably could have found, on the basis of the evidence adduced at the evidentiary hearing on the motion, that the defendant did not wilfully violate the court's orders when she disposed of the property at issue for no value after having offered the plaintiff the opportunity to retrieve that property. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting the defendant's postdissolution motion for contempt, as evidence in the record substantiated the court's finding that the plaintiff wilfully ignored the court's escrow order requiring him to pay $15,000 to the defendant's counsel on or before a specified date. Argued February 19—officially released May 13, 2025