Stonybrook Gardens Cooperative, Inc. v. Newrez, LLC

Syllabus

Pursuant to statute (§ 47-258), an association has a statutory lien on a condominium or cooperative unit for any assessment attributable to that unit, and, in all actions brought to foreclose a lien under that section, the lien is prior to first or second security interests encumbering only the unit owner's interest and perfected before the date on which the assessment sought to be enforced became delinquent to the extent of an amount equal to the common expense assessments, based on the periodic budget of the association, which would have become due in the absence of acceleration during the nine months immediately preced- ing the institution of an action to enforce the association's lien as well as the association's costs and reasonable attorney's fees in enforcing its lien. The plaintiff, a unit owners association that had previously foreclosed a statutory lien in 2021 on a certain unit, which it thereafter purchased at a foreclosure sale, commenced the present omitted party action against the defendant pursuant to statute (§ 49-30). The defendant was the holder of a mortgage on the unit and had a first security interest but had been omitted from the plaintiff's 2021 foreclosure action. The plaintiff sought its common charges as foreclosed, court costs and legal fees of all current and past court actions, and the costs it incurred in remediating the unit as a redemption amount on the unit. The trial court defaulted the defendant for failure to appear and granted the plaintiff's motion for a judgment of strict foreclosure, setting the redemption amount at $34,410.56. The defendant subsequently filed an appearance and a motion to open and vacate the judgment, in which it alleged, inter alia, that, had the plaintiff correctly named it in the 2021 foreclosure action, its redemption amount would have been $8868.47 and that it would be inequitable and contrary to the requirements of § 49-30 to require it to pay any additional amounts to exercise its right of redemp- tio