Purtill v. Cook

Citations

• 197 Conn. App. 22

Syllabus

The plaintiff, the administrator of the estate of A, sought, by way of summary process, to regain possession of certain premises occupied by the defen- dant. The defendant previously held a life estate in the premises but had his life estate terminated by the Probate Court. Thereafter, the plaintiff served the defendant with a notice to quit and, when the defen- dant failed to vacate the premises, the plaintiff initiated a summary process action. The defendant was defaulted for failure to plead and the court rendered a judgment of possession in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant filed a motion to open and an application for a stay of execution. The court denied the motion to open but granted a limited, final stay of execution for thirty days. The defendant subsequently filed a claim of exemption from eviction on behalf of C Co., as occupant of the property, which the court dismissed, and the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's motion to open the judgment of default; the defendant failed to articulate a good defense and had not met the standard for opening a judgment pursuant to statute (§ 52-212) because he failed to demonstrate that he had been prevented by mistake, accident or other reasonable cause from making his defense and from timely filing his answer. 2. This court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the defendant's chal- lenge to the trial court's order granting him a limited stay because the claim was moot; subsequent to the commencement of this appeal, an automatic stay arose pursuant to statute (§ 47a-35), which was then vacated by the trial court following the plaintiff's motion to vacate because the defendant failed to provide security as set forth in § 47- 35a, and this court denied the defendant's motion to stay eviction and, thus, there was no practical relief that this court could afford the defen- dant by reviewing his claim regarding the propriety of the limited