U.S. Bank, National Assn. v. Bennett

Citations

• 195 Conn. App. 96

Syllabus

The plaintiff bank, B Co., sought to foreclose a mortgage on certain real property owned by the defendant D, who filed special defenses and counterclaims, alleging, inter alia, vexatious litigation. Specifically, D alleged that a previous foreclosure action brought against D by B Co.'s predecessor in interest, which concerned the same property, was dis- missed in 2009 for failure to establish probable cause with respect to the chain of custody of the loan, and that B Co.'s present action, without evidence of loan assignment documents demonstrating probable cause to bring the present action, constituted vexatious litigation, as the same counsel who brought the prior foreclosure action also commenced B Co.'s foreclosure action. The trial court granted B Co.'s motion for summary judgment as to liability only on the complaint and on D's counterclaims and, subsequently, rendered judgment of strict foreclo- sure. On appeal, D claimed, inter alia, that the trial court erred in conclud- ing that her vexatious litigation counterclaim was barred by the statute of limitations (§ 52-577). Held: 1. The trial court properly rendered summary judgment as to D's vexatious litigation counterclaim, as such claims may not be brought until the underlying action that is the source of the alleged misconduct has con- cluded in the claimant's favor; contrary to D's claim that her counter- claim was centered on a combination of the dismissal of the 2009 foreclo- sure action and the commencement of the present action, D's vexatious counterclaim was based on conduct occurring in the present foreclosure action, and therefore, D's counterclaim was premature, as it could not be brought in the same action as that which D claimed was vexatious. 2. The trial court properly rendered summary judgment as to D's abuse of process counterclaim: although D alleged that genuine issues of material fact existed regarding the court's dismissal of the 2009 action for failure to establish a proper chain of custo