Nationstar Mortgage, LLC v. Gabriel

Citations

• 201 Conn. App. 39

Syllabus

The plaintiff mortgage company brought a summary process action against the defendants, tenants of residential property, seeking immediate pos- session of the premises on the ground that the defendants' rights to occupy had terminated. According to the return of service, each defen- dant was served with a copy of the notice to quit by abode service. Following the defendants' failure to plead, the trial court granted the plaintiff's motion for default and rendered judgment of possession in favor of the plaintiff. The defendants thereafter filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, claiming that the notice to quit was not served on all of the designated occupants of the property, as required by statute (§ 47a-23). The defendants filed an affidavit of one of the occupants in support thereof and also filed a motion to open the judgment of possession. The trial court denied both of the defendants' motions. On appeal, the defendants claim that the trial court erred in denying their request for an evidentiary hearing despite their having raised a disputed issue of fact and that the absence of an evidentiary hearing led to clearly erroneous findings by the trial court. Held that the trial court properly denied the defendants' motion to dismiss, as there was ample evidence to support the court's finding that the defen- dants were served with the notice to quit; the marshal's return of service was prima facie evidence that each defendant had been served by abode service, the affidavit submitted by the defendants, which was the only evidence submitted in support of their motion, did nothing to create a genuine dispute as to any pertinent jurisdictional fact, as it merely acknowledged that the affiant was serviced and made no statement based on the personal knowledge that the other defendants were not served, and there was no affidavit or other documentation from any other defendant to demonstrate that he or she had not been served in any manner, and, th