Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC v. Mordecai

Citations

• 209 Conn. App. 483

Syllabus

In 2011, the plaintiff, O Co., sought to foreclose a mortgage on certain real property owned by the defendants, and thereafter filed a motion to substitute N Co. as the plaintiff. In 2017, N Co. filed a motion for summary judgment as to liability only as to its amended complaint. Soon thereafter, N Co. assigned the mortgage to W Co., and filed a motion to substitute W Co. as the plaintiff, which the court granted. For several months, the parties engaged in discovery and litigated discovery disputes, including W Co.'s inability to locate and produce loan payment history records for a period of more than two years. While discovery objections were still outstanding, W Co. reclaimed the motion for summary judgment in 2018. Subsequently, the trial court ordered W Co. to provide additional discovery regarding its search efforts to locate the missing loan payment records. After the completion of discovery, the defendants filed a request to amend their answer and special defenses, which contained seven special defenses to address the incomplete payment records and related issues regarding changes in the amount of escrow payments. The defen- dants also submitted a caseflow request for a continuance to respond to W Co.'s motion for summary judgment until after the court ruled on their request to amend, arguing, in relevant part, that the amended special defenses, if granted, would have direct significance on the motion for summary judgment, and, therefore, should be considered first. The court, however, denied the requested continuance. W Co. filed an objec- tion to the defendants' request to amend, claiming that the defendants' counsel sought to delay the case, which the court sustained, and there- after denied the defendants' request to amend without explanation or analysis. In 2019, W Co. filed a reply to the defendants' original special defenses and a certificate of closed pleadings. The court granted W Co.'s motion for summary judgment, finding that no genuine issues of