Grodzicki v. Grodzicki

• Decision Date: 25 January 1967
• Citation: 154 Conn. 456,226 A.2d 656
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Joseph L. GRODZICKI v. Stasia M. GRODZICKI.

Page 656

226 A.2d 656

154 Conn. 456

Joseph L. GRODZICKI v. Stasia M. GRODZICKI.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Jan. 25, 1967.

James N. Egan, Hartford, with whom, on the brief, was Edward R. Smoragiewicz, Hartford, for appellant (defendant).

Andrew F. Pulaski, Meriden, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before KING, C.J., and ALCORN, COTTER, THIM and RYAN, JJ.

RYAN, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff husband brought this action for conversion against the defendant wife. In this appeal by her, we are concerned only with the first count of the complaint in which the plaintiff alleged that he was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in an account with the East Hartford Aircraft Federal Credit Union from which the defendant withdrew all the funds and converted to her own use. The defendant denied the allegations of the complaint and filed a counterclaim in three counts. The trial court found for the plaintiff on the complaint to recover of the defendant the sum of $4680.28 and for the defendant, on the second count of her counterclaim, in the sum of $1000. The judgment on the counterclaim was set off against the plaintiff's recovery, leaving a balance of $3680.28 due the plaintiff from the defendant. Neither party has appealed from the judgment on the counterclaim, and we are concerned only with the defendant's appeal from the judgment rendered on the complaint.

The defendant, in her appeal, assigns error in the failure of the trial court to find certain material facts which she claims were admitted or undisputed and in the finding of certain facts without evidence. The corrections to which the defendant has shown herself entitled are incorporated in the following statement of facts found by the court.

The plaintiff and the defendant were married on September 26, 1942, and lived together until May 17, 1963, when the defendant wife left the plaintiff and their two minor children. The defendant worked during the marriage at the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Company from 1954 until the date of trial. The plaintiff was employed in Meriden at the International Silver Company. At the commencement of her employment, the defendant opened a savings account in her own name in the East Hartford Aircraft Federal Credit Union, and, on March 24, 1954, she changed this account so that it was in the joint names of her husband and herself, with the right of survivorship. During this time, the defendant deposited approximately one-half of her gross salary in the joint account and also peridically purchased bonds in the joint names of herself and her husband. At no time did the plaintiff deposit any money in this account. On November 1, 1961, the defendant, without the plaintiff's knowledge or permission, withdrew the entire savings from the Federal Credit Union and redeposited this sum in a new account in her own name. On July 27, 1962, the defendant withdrew the entire account in the sum of $9360.47 from the credit union and deposited it in the Puritan Bank and Trust Company in Meriden in her own name as trustee for the parties's two children.

Three paragraphs of the finding are attacked by the defendant as found without evidence. These findings, which are crucial to the plaintiff's case, recite the following facts: The plaintiff and the defendant agreed to accumulate their entire financial estate jointly as community property. Pursuant to this agreement, the plaintiff and the defendant opened several savings accounts in their joint names with the right of survivorship, purchased bonds and real estate in the same manner, and had a safe deposit box in both names. During this time and pursuant to this agreement, the plaintiff's moneys were utilized for, among other things, the support and maintenance of the family household and mortgage payments, and the balance was put into the parties' joint savings bank accounts or was utilized for the purchase of bonds in their joint names. 'It is a well-settled rule that this court will not look beyond the appendices to the briefs in order to find supporting evidence. Practice Book §§ 645, 721. 'It is the duty of both parties to print all material evidence in the appendices to their briefs.' Pass v. Pass, 152 Conn. 508, 511, 208 A.2d 753, 755; Cushing v. Salmon, 148 Conn. 631, 632, 173 A.2d 543; State v. Pundy, 147 Conn. 7, 9, 156 A.2d 193.' Solari v. Seperak, 154 Conn. 179, 183, 224 A.2d 529, 531. In the present case, the plaintiff filed no appendix setting forth evidence to support these findings, and the defendant's appendix recites no such evidence. We have no alternative but to conclude that these findings were not supported by the evidence and must therefore be stricken. In consequence of this, the conclusion of the trial court that the parties held their property jointly and intended that it be community property cannot be sustained.

The plaintiff urges that the judgment of the trial court should be sustained by virtue of General Statutes (Rev. to 1962) § 36-3, which reads as follows: '(1) When a deposit has been made in this state in any state bank and trust company, national banking association, savings bank, industrial bank or private bank, or an account has been issued in this state by any building or savings and loan association or federal savings and loan association or credit union, in the names of two or more persons and in form to be paid to any one or the survivor, or survivors, of them, such deposit or account and any additions thereto made by any of such persons after the making or issuance thereof, together with all dividends or interest or increases credited thereon, shall be held for the exclusive use of such persons and may be paid to any of them during the lifetime of all of them or to the survivor or survivors after the death of one or more of them, and...