Wooden v. Perez

Citations

• 210 Conn. App. 303

Syllabus

The plaintiff, the executor of the estate of the decedent T, sought a right to title by adverse possession of a strip of the defendant's property located adjacent to certain real property that T owned at the time of his death. A was thereafter substituted as the plaintiff after he was appointed the successor administrator of T's estate. The trial court subsequently granted the defendant's motion to dismiss the action and rendered judgment thereon on the basis that A lacked standing to pursue an action on behalf of the estate, because the estate had no interest in T's property. On A's appeal to this court, held that the trial court correctly determined that A lacked standing because T devised the property to a trust for the benefit of his children, and, therefore, only the trustees of that trust, and not the executor or administrator of T's estate, had standing to prosecute the action: it was the owner of the property that stood to benefit from a resolution of the action, and, thus, that had the necessary personal stake in the outcome of the controversy, it was undisputed that T devised the property to a trust, and, accordingly, on T's death, title to that property immediately passed to that trust; more- over, A's attempt to assert standing on a theory of statutory aggrievement arising out of language in the applicable statute (§ 45a-321) was likewise unavailing, because there was no allegation that the property was needed to satisfy the debts of the estate, and, therefore, A failed to allege the necessary factual predicate to demonstrate that he was the proper party to invoke judicial resolution of any adverse possession claim. Argued October 20, 2021—officially released January 25, 2022