Taber v. Taber

Citations

• 210 Conn. App. 331

Syllabus

The defendant, whose marriage to the plaintiff previously had been dis- solved, appealed to this court from an order of the trial court issued on August 10, 2020, modifying his custody of the parties' minor child and amended his appeal to challenge the court's October 28, 2020 order concerning the payment of arrearage fees to the guardian ad litem. On October 13, 2020, the court issued an order suspending entirely the defendant's access to the minor child until certain conditions were met. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court failed to apply the correct legal standard and failed to make the requisite findings in its consideration of the plaintiff's application for an emer- gency ex parte order of custody, as the appeal from the court's August 10, 2020 order on the application was dismissed as moot; subsequent to the trial court's order regarding the defendant's custody of his minor child, the court issued an order on October 13, 2020, further restricting his access to the child and superseding the first order, and, because the defendant did not appeal from the October 13, 2020 order, this court could not afford the defendant any practical relief and lacked subject matter jurisdiction. 2. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the defendant to begin making weekly payments on the total arrearage of guardian ad litem fees; the court ordered the defendant to submit a current, com- pleted financial affidavit and a recent paystub showing his year to date earnings and held a hearing to address the issue of the fees, and testi- mony was presented concerning the defendant's current financial cir- cumstances and ability to pay various other bills, thus, the record indi- cated that the court considered the financial circumstances of the parties in issuing its order. Argued November 18, 2021—officially released January 25, 2022