Sosin v. Sosin

• Decision Date: 22 February 2011
• Docket Number: No. 18238.,18238.
• Citation: 300 Conn. 205,14 A.3d 307
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Howard B. SOSINv.Susan F. SOSIN.

300 Conn. 205

14 A.3d 307

Howard B. SOSIN

v.Susan F. SOSIN.

No. 18238.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 27, 2010.Decided Feb. 22, 2011.

Wesley W. Horton, with whom were Daniel Jonah Krisch, Hartford, and Mark R. Soboslai, for the appellant-appellee (plaintiff).Charles D. Ray, Hartford, with whom were Frederic J. Siegel, Stamford, and Matthew A. Weiner, Hartford, for the appellee-appellant (defendant).NORCOTT, PALMER, VERTEFEUILLE, ZARELLA and

FLYNN, Js. ^*

PALMER, J.

This certified appeal and cross appeal arise from a marital dissolution action brought by the plaintiff, Howard B. Sosin, against the defendant, Susan F. Sosin. The trial court rendered a judgment of dissolution and, as part of the distribution of marital assets, ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendant the sum of $24,000,000 out of certain bank and brokerage accounts. The plaintiff filed a motion to reargue in which he noted several errors that the trial court had made in distributing certain personal property. Thereafter, the plaintiff filed an amended motion to reargue in which he claimed that the lump sum payment should be reduced by $1,825,000 because the trial court had overvalued a bank account by $3,650,000. The trial court granted the plaintiff's first motion to reargue and issued an order reducing the lump sum payment to the defendant to $23,834,900 but denied the amended motion to reargue. When the plaintiff paid the defendant $20,006,819, the defendant filed a motion for contempt. The trial court then ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendant $3,828,081 plus interest pursuant to General Statutes § 37–3a.¹ On appeal, the Appellate Court upheld the trial court's order requiring the plaintiff to pay the defendant $23,834,900. See Sosin v. Sosin, 109 Conn.App. 691, 700–702, 710, 952 A.2d 1258 (2008). The Appellate Court also concluded that the trial court properly had ordered the plaintiff to pay interest on the award; id., at 707, 952 A.2d 1258; but it remanded the case to the trial court so that that court could conduct a hearing on the amount of interest due. Id., at 710, 952 A.2d 1258. We granted the plaintiff's petition for certification to appeal, limited to the following issues. First “[d]id the Appellate Court properly apply ... § 37–3a in determining that the trial court properly awarded interest on the detained funds?” Sosin v. Sosin, 289 Conn. 934, 935, 958 A.2d 1245 (2008). Second, “[d]id the Appellate Court properly determine that the trial court did not improperly modify the original distribution of assets?” Id. We also granted the defendant's petition for certification to cross appeal, limited to the following issue: “Did the Appellate Court properly remand [the] matter to the trial court for a de novo hearing on the amount of interest or should it have merely reinstated the trial court's November [27], 2006 award of interest?” ² Sosin v. Sosin, 289 Conn. 935, 958 A.2d 1245 (2008). We conclude that the Appellate Court properly determined that the trial court's order directing the plaintiff to pay the defendant $3,828,081 did not constitute an improper modification of the original judgment and that the trial court had the discretion to award interest pursuant to § 37–3a because it reasonably could have concluded that the plaintiff had wrongfully withheld payment of the $3,828,081 to the defendant.³ We further conclude that the Appellate Court improperly remanded the case to the trial court for a determination on the issue of postjudgment interest because the record is sufficiently clear with respect to this issue. Accordingly, we reverse in part the judgment of the Appellate Court.

The record reveals the following undisputed facts and procedural history. After a trial, the trial court rendered a judgment dissolving the parties' marriage on March 22, 2005. The dissolution order incorporated the trial court's memorandum of decision, in which the court had ordered the distribution of the parties' marital assets. Among other items, these assets included fine furniture, valuable paintings and seventeen bank and brokerage accounts. The trial court determined that the value of the bank and brokerage accounts as of December 31, 2004, was $89,039,617.68 and ordered that “[t]he plaintiff will maintain his interest in, and the defendant will transfer to the plaintiff all her right, title and interest in, the ... bank/brokerage accounts....” The court also awarded “the sum of [$24 million]” to the defendant and ordered that “[t]he plaintiff shall choose to pay this amount from any of his seventeen accounts.”

After the trial court issued its memorandum of decision, however, the plaintiff discovered that the decision contained several errors. Specifically, the trial court misstated the value of eight pieces of furniture, resulting in an overstatement of their value to the plaintiff of $459,700. In addition, the trial court awarded a painting to both parties and failed to award another painting to either party. Finally, the trial court stated that the value of one of the seventeen bank or brokerage accounts was $57,650,000 when the parties had agreed that the account had a balance of $54,000,000, resulting in an overstatement of the value to the plaintiff of $3,650,000.⁴ In light of these errors, the plaintiff filed a motion to reargue with respect to the distribution of assets, in which he asserted that the trial court should deduct one half of the $459,700 discrepancy in the valuation of the furniture, or $229,850, from the lump sum award to the defendant and, further, that the court should award the two paintings to him and award one half of the value of the paintings, or $64,750, to the defendant. Thereafter, the plaintiff filed an amended motion to reargue in which he noted the trial court's erroneous valuation of the bank or brokerage account and asserted that the error had resulted in a $3,650,000 shortfall “in the amount awarded to the [p]laintiff.” He further argued that the trial court should deduct one half of the shortfall, or $1,825,000, from the lump sum award to the defendant.

On September 8, 2005, the trial court granted the plaintiff's initial motion to reargue. The court stated that it was its “intention to award [the] defendant the lump cash award of $24,000,000” and ordered that the award be reduced by $165,100 ⁵ to $23,834,900. On October 11, 2005, the court summarily denied the plaintiff's amended motion to reargue.

When the plaintiff failed to pay the $23,834,900 award, the defendant, on November 3, 2005, filed a motion for contempt. Thereafter, on November 10, 2005, the plaintiff paid the defendant $20,006,819.⁶ In her memorandum of law in support of the motion for contempt, the defendant argued that the trial court should find the plaintiff in contempt and order the plaintiff to pay, pursuant to § 37–3a (a), interest in the amount of $1,325,590 on the principal amount of $20,006,819 for the period April 21, 2005,⁷ to November 10, 2005, the date on which the plaintiff paid that amount to the defendant. The defendant also sought interest in the amount of $111,171.74 for the period of April 21, 2005, to November 10, 2005, and an additional $1048.79 per day after November 10, 2005, on the remaining principal balance of $3,828,081. The trial court held a hearing on the motion for contempt on February 17, 2006. At the hearing, the plaintiff maintained that the trial court had intended to award him the specific dollar amount in the bank and brokerage accounts, or $89,039,617.68, less the lump sum payment of $24,000,000. He asserted that the asset distribution order was ambiguous because, under that order, he could either pay himself $65,039,617.68 or pay the defendant the $24,000,000 lump sum award, but, because the trial court's valuation of the accounts was incorrect, he could not do both. Accordingly, he chose to resolve the ambiguity by paying himself $65,039,617.68. The defendant claimed that, to the contrary, the trial court unambiguously had ordered that the plaintiff would retain possession of the accounts, not that he was entitled to any specific dollar amount, and that it unambiguously had ordered him to pay the defendant $24,000,000.

On March 23, 2006, the trial court issued a ruling on the defendant's motion for contempt, stating that the plaintiff had “unilaterally deducted $3,828,081 from the sum due [to] the defendant” and ordered the plaintiff to pay her that amount within ten days of the order. The trial court also ordered the plaintiff to pay “[i]nterest at the legal rate ... on said sum from September 8, 2005,” the date on which the court had modified its original order in response to the plaintiff's initial motion to reargue. Because the trial court had “some doubt as to whether [the] plaintiff's conduct was wilful and deliberate,” however, it denied the motion for contempt. On March 31, 2006, the plaintiff paid the defendant $4,002,599.54. This amount included interest from September 8, 2005, at an annual rate of 8 percent.

The plaintiff then filed a motion for reargument in which he asserted that, because the trial court had not entered a final order disposing of all postjudgment issues until October 11, 2005, and because the court originally had ordered that the lump sum payment was not due until thirty days after the date of the dissolution judgment, he should not have been required to pay interest from September 8, 2005. The defendant also filed a motion for reargument, claiming that the trial court improperly had denied her request for interest on the principal amount of $23,834,900 ($20,006,819 plus $3,828,081) from April 21, 2005, through November 10, 2005. Thereafter, the trial court denied the plaintiff's motion for reargument, and the plaintiff appealed to the Appellate Court from the order issued in connection with the ruling on the defendant's motion for contempt. The defendant filed a cross appeal. The trial court then denied the defendant's...