Zakko v. Kasir

Citations

• 209 Conn. App. 619

Syllabus

The defendant appealed to this court from the trial court's order awarding, inter alia, $15,000 in attorney's fees to the plaintiff. Following the dissolu- tion of the parties' marriage, the trial court granted the plaintiff's motion to open the judgment of dissolution as to financial matters only on the ground of mutual mistake in connection with the defendant's failure to disclose information related to a certain disability policy. Thereafter, the plaintiff filed a motion for pendente lite alimony and attorney's fees. During the hearing on the motion, the plaintiff submitted a financial affidavit that listed liabilities totaling $91,094, including $47,105 in out- standing loans from family members. In addition, evidence was pre- sented as to whether the funds given to the plaintiff by her family members were loans or gifts and as to the plaintiff's access to nearly $30,000 in a bank account jointly held with her son. The trial court concluded that an award of $15,000 in attorney's fees to the plaintiff was warranted because, in light of her claimed debts, the plaintiff lacked ample liquid funds to pay for an attorney. In reaching its decision, the court raised, but did not resolve, the question of whether the funds from the plaintiff's family members constituted loans or gifts. Held: 1. The trial court abused its discretion in awarding the plaintiff attorney's fees; given the evidence before it, it was not reasonable for that court to conclude that the plaintiff lacked ample liquid funds to pay for her attorney's fees after it expressly declined to determine whether the funds that the plaintiff received from family members were, in fact, loans. 2. The trial court, in making its award of attorney's fees, expressly relied on the clearly erroneous factual finding that the plaintiff had access to only $3000 in bank accounts, which undermined this court's confidence in that court's fact-finding process and, therefore, could not be deemed harmless error; although the pl