Ricketts v. Ricketts

Citations

• 203 Conn. App. 1

Syllabus

The plaintiff, whose marriage to the defendant previously had been dis- solved, appealed to this court from the postjudgment orders of the trial court denying his motion to transfer this matter to the Regional Family Trial Docket and appointing a guardian ad litem for the parties' minor children. Held that the challenged postjudgment orders did not consti- tute a final judgment and, therefore, the appeal was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction: despite the plaintiff's claim that, pursuant to the parties' divorce degree, he may immediately appeal from the trial court's order denying his motion to transfer the case to the Regional Family Trial Docket, the court's order was entered in the course of continuing post- judgment proceedings on motions that remain pending before the trial court, thus, the order did not terminate any proceeding and did not satisfy the first prong of State v. Curcio (191 Conn. 27), and, because the right that the plaintiff seeks to vindicate in this appeal is neither statutory nor constitutional, the second prong of Curcio also was not satisfied; moreover, insofar as the plaintiff challenged the court's ruling that the plaintiff had agreed on the appointment of a guardian ad litem, this order also was interlocutory and did not constitute an immediately appealable judgment, as the court appointed a guardian ad litem to investigate facts in order to make recommendations concerning the children's best interests, which was a step toward a final judgment resolving the issues concerning education, visitation, and custody that had arisen postjudgment. Considered December 16, 2020—officially released March 2, 2021