Speer v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Co.

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed from the trial court's judgment, following its grant- ing of the defendant's motion for judgment and costs and the denial of her motions for leave to amend the operative complaint and to substitute a new party defendant. The plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly awarded attorney's fees to the defendant under a provision of the statute (§ 47-31 (e)) governing actions seeking to quiet title to certain real property when that statute only provides for a taxation of \costs.\ Held: The trial court improperly awarded attorney's fees to the defendant pursuant to § 47-31 (e), as that statute does not expressly authorize a court to award attorney's fees to a disclaiming defendant, and, to the extent that § 47-31 (e) reflects the legislature's intent to create a statutory exception to the American rule, that exception is expressly limited to the reimbursement of statutory costs and does not authorize a court to award a defendant reason- able attorney's fees. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the plaintiff's request for leave to amend the operative complaint, filed after the defendant had sought judgment on the quiet title count, the only remaining count in the operative revised complaint, as it was well within the court's discretion to deny the plaintiff's request as untimely given the late stage in the proceed- ings, and the obvious purpose of the amendment was to resurrect a claim that the plaintiff had previously abandoned after repleading following the granting of a motion to strike. The trial court properly denied the plaintiff's request to substitute a new party defendant solely for the purpose of pursuing a claim that she had abandoned, as judgment had already entered on the quiet title count and no counts remained to be adjudicated in the action. Argued November 20, 2025—officially released June 2, 2026