U.S. Bank National Assn. v. Crawford

Citations

• 333 Conn. 731

Syllabus

The plaintiff in error, E, who had been appointed by the trial court as the committee to conduct a foreclosure sale in the underlying foreclosure action brought by the defendant in error bank, U Co., against the defen- dant in error property owner, C, filed a writ of error, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court improperly denied his motion to recover fees and expenses from U Co. U Co. had sought to foreclose a mortgage on certain of C's real property. The trial court rendered judgment of foreclosure by sale, and U Co. was the successful bidder. Before the sale could be completed, C filed a bankruptcy petition under chapter 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court, which automatically stayed the foreclosure proceedings pursuant to the automatic stay provision (11 U.S.C. § 362 [a] [2012]) of the code. Thereafter, pursuant to statute (§ 49-25), E filed a motion seeking to recover from U Co. the fees and expenses that he had incurred in preparing for the sale. The trial court denied E's motion for fees and expenses on the ground that, pursuant to the Appellate Court's decision in Equity One, Inc. v. Shivers (150 Conn. App. 745), the motion automati- cally was stayed by 11 U.S.C. § 362 (a) and the court was barred from acting on the motion during the duration of the stay. In connection with his writ of error, E claimed, inter alia, that this court should overrule Shivers because state courts lack jurisdiction to extend the automatic stay provision to motions for fees and expenses filed by committees for sale seeking expenses from nondebtor plaintiffs in foreclosure actions. Held: 1. This court could review E's writ of error because, although the trial court's order denying E's motion for fees and expenses was an interlocutory order, it constituted an appealable final judgment under the second prong of the test for determining the appealability of interlocutory orders set forth in State v. Curcio (191 Conn. 27), as the denial of t