Wachovia Mortgage, FSB v. Toczek

Citations

• 196 Conn. App. 1

Syllabus

The plaintiff M Co. sought to foreclose a mortgage on certain real property owned by the defendants A and T following their default on a promissory note secured by the mortgage. Thereafter, W Co., which had been substi- tuted as the plaintiff in the action following its acquisition of M Co., filed a motion for summary judgment as to liability. In support of its motion, W Co. attached an affidavit from H, the vice president of loan documentation for M Co., who attested concerning the debt owed under the note and that W Co. was the current holder of the note. H included with his affidavit a copy of both the note and the mortgage, which he referenced therein. No objection to the motion was filed. The trial court granted W Co.'s motion for summary judgment as to liability, which it treated as unopposed, concluding that H's affidavit in conjunction with the note and mortgage constituted a prima facie case for a judgment of strict foreclosure and that W Co. had met its burden of showing that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Thereafter, the trial court granted W Co.'s motion for a judgment of strict foreclosure and rendered judgment thereon. The trial court subsequently denied A's motion to reargue, and A appealed to this court. Held: 1. A could not prevail on her claim that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because W Co. did not have standing because it was not the holder of the subject note, which was premised on her claim that the note was a nonnegotiable instrument pursuant to the relevant statute (§ 42a-3-104 (a)) because it was not for a fixed amount of money and was governed by federal law; because A's claim challenged the validity of the note, as opposed to W Co.'s actual possession of the note or ownership of the mortgage, it implicated the merits of the foreclosure action and, therefore, was not jurisdictional. 2. Contrary to A's claim, the trial court properly granted W Co.'s motion for summary judgment as to liability, as W Co. e