Walzer v. Walzer

Citations

• 209 Conn. App. 604

Syllabus

The defendant, whose marriage to the plaintiff previously had been dis- solved, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court granting the plaintiff's motion for contempt and ordering the sale of certain real property, namely, the former marital home. The parties' separation agreement, which was incorporated into the judgment of dissolution, provided, inter alia, that the defendant would pay to the plaintiff a property settlement of $2,580,000, in installments, to be secured with a mortgage deed in favor of the plaintiff against the former marital home. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant had failed to make certain of the installment payments. Held: 1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding the defendant in contempt; the defendant conceded that he had defaulted on the payment obligations set forth in the separation agreement, stipulated to the amount owed, offered no evidence to support a finding that he was unable to comply with his payment obligations, and submitted a financial affidavit showing significant real and personal property assets that could be liquidated or financed to satisfy his payment obligations, thus, the court properly found that the defendant's failure to pay was wilful. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court improperly ordered the sale of the former marital home: the court did not lack jurisdiction to enter the order as it did not alter the terms of the judgment of dissolution but, instead, fashioned a remedy appropriate to protect the integrity of the original judgment, as the separation agreement unam- biguously tied the plaintiff's interest in the former marital home to the defendant's payment obligations; moreover, during the hearing on the plaintiff's motion for contempt, the defendant's counsel did not object to the plaintiff's request that the former marital home be sold; further- more, the court's remedial orders setting the terms of the sale, including that the defendant