Strobel v. Strobel

• Decision Date: 31 July 2001
• Parties: KEVIN STROBEL v. ROSE LI-HWA STROBEL
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals

64 Conn. App. 614

781 A.2d 356

KEVIN STROBEL v. ROSE LI-HWA STROBEL

(AC 20269), (AC 20276)

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued April 3, 2001.

Officially released July 31, 2001.

Landau, Flynn and Daly, Js. Rose Li-Hwa Strobel, pro se, the appellant (defendant).

Sandra P. Lax, with whom, on the brief, was Daniel J. Roberts, student intern, for the appellee (plaintiff).

Opinion

LANDAU, J.

These consolidated appeals are two more links in a seemingly endless chain of litigation between the parties that destructively centers on their only child.¹ The defendant's appeals concern numerous postdissolution judgments rendered by the trial court with respect to various motions filed by the parties and the attorney for the minor child.² In her main and supplemental briefs, the defendant raises seventeen claims of error with respect to the judgments. We dismiss appeal AC 20276 and affirm the judgments in appeal AC 20269.

We glean the following facts from the record and the transcripts of the various hearings on the motions at issue.³ The parties were married in September, 1989, and their only child, a son, was born in March, 1990. The trial court rendered a judgment of dissolution in July, 1997. The judgment, in part, granted the parties joint custody of their son. The defendant mother was given primary physical custody of the child, but the visitation schedule permitted him to see the plaintiff father about 50 percent of the time. The judgment also provided that if the parties were not able to reach mutual custody decisions, the defendant's decision was controlling.

Prior to the dissolution, the child resided with the plaintiff and attended the Fairfield public schools. Following the dissolution, the child lived with the defendant in Stamford and went to a public school in that city. Apparently, the child experienced transitional difficulties when he changed schools. On August 10, 1999, after the plaintiff learned that the defendant was planning to move to a two bedroom home in Wilton and to enroll the child in the school system there, he filed a motion requesting that the court order the child to attend school in Fairfield during the 1999-2000 school year. The defendant objected to the motion. The motion was not presented to the court until the eve of the defendant's move to Wilton.⁴ Following a hearing on November 15, 1999, the court, Brennan, J.,⁵ modified the judgment of dissolution, ordering that the child be enrolled in the Fairfield school system for the remainder of the school year and awarding physical custody of the child to the plaintiff.

On November 10, 1999, the defendant filed a motion to disqualify the child's counsel, claiming that he was adversarial toward her and sided with the plaintiff. The court denied the motion. By motion dated January 5, 2000, the defendant sought to have the court find the plaintiff in contempt for allegedly not caring for the child properly and for interfering with the mother-son relationship. The court denied the motion. The court also denied the defendant's January 14, 2000 motion to discard the family relations report and granted the plaintiffs motion to accept the report "within the confines of changes recited on the record." The court also denied the defendant's January 14, 2000 motion seeking a judicial reprimand of two family relations counselors, as well as the defendant's February 3, 2000 motion for contempt in which she claimed that the plaintiff had violated the visitation schedule. The court granted the plaintiffs January 6, 2000 motions regarding child support, terminating the plaintiffs child support obligation and imposing a support obligation on the defendant. The defendant filed two appeals related to the court's rulings, which were consolidated.⁶

We are mindful that the defendant primarily has represented herself in the trial court and here. "[I]t is the established policy of the Connecticut courts to be solicitous of pro se litigants and when it does not interfere with the rights of other parties to construe the rules of practice liberally in favor of the pro se party." Rosato v. Rosato, 53 Conn. App. 387, 390, 731 A.2d 323 (1999). "Although we allow pro se litigants some latitude, the right of self-representation provides no attendant license not to comply with relevant rules of procedural and substantive law." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Zanoni v. Hudon, 42 Conn. App. 70, 77, 678 A.2d 12 (1996).

As noted, the defendant has identified seventeen issues on appeal.⁷ "Legal contentions, like the currency, depreciate through over-issue. The mind of an appellate judge is habitually receptive to the suggestion that a lower court committed an error. But receptiveness declines as the number of assigned errors increases. Multiplicity hints at lack of confidence in any one [issue].... [M]ultiplying assignments of error will dilute and weaken a good case and will not save a bad one....

"Most cases present only one, two, or three significant questions.... Usually ... if you cannot win on a few major points, the others are not likely to help.... The effect of adding weak arguments will be to dilute the force of the stronger ones." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Pelletier, 209 Conn. 564, 567, 552 A.2d 805 (1989).

The issues raised by the defendant fall into two categories: whether the court improperly (1) denied her motion to disqualify the child's attorney and (2) modified the judgment of dissolution by ordering the child to attend school in Fairfield, by granting the plaintiff physical custody of the child and by ordering the defendant to pay child support.

I AC 20276

We dismiss the defendant's appeal with respect to the court's decision refusing to disqualify the child's counsel because the defendant lacks standing to raise the issue. "The issue of standing implicates the court's subject matter jurisdiction.... Standing focuses on the party seeking to be heard and not on the issues that party wants to have heard." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Taff v. Bettcher, 35 Conn. App. 421, 424-25, 646 A.2d 875 (1994). "Our case law is also clear that a person cannot gain standing by asserting the due process rights possessed by another individual. It is axiomatic that due process rights are personal, and cannot be asserted vicariously.... Thus, once the court finds it appropriate to appoint counsel for the minor child, the representation is the child's entitlement, not the parent's." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 425-26. Generally, the defendant has no standing to raise a claim on behalf of her child. Lord v. Lord, 44 Conn. App. 370, 375, 689 A.2d 509, cert. denied, 241 Conn. 913, 696 A.2d 985 (1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1122, 118 S. Ct. 1065, 140 L. Ed.2d 125 (1998). The defendant did not claim that her request was made to prevent prejudice to her own case. See id., 375-76. The defendant, therefore, has no standing to pursue her claim that the court improperly denied her motion to disqualify her child's counsel. See Taff v. Bettcher, supra, 428.

II AC 20269

In her amended appeal, the defendant claims, inter alia, that the court improperly modified the judgment of dissolution by ordering the child to attend school in Fairfield, by granting the plaintiff physical custody of the child and by ordering the defendant to pay child support. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

A

With respect to the judgment modification related to the child's school, physical custody of the child and child support, the court did not write memoranda of decision, and the defendant did not submit a signed copy of any oral decisions. See Practice Book § 64-1. The defendant also did not file motions for articulation.

"The duty to provide this court with a record adequate for review rests with the appellant." Chase Manhattan Bank/City Trust v. AECO Elevator Co., 48 Conn. App. 605, 607, 710 A.2d 190 (1998). "It is incumbent upon the appellant to take the necessary steps to sustain its burden of providing an adequate record for appellate review. Practice Book § 4061 [now § 60-5] .... It is not the function of this court to find facts." (Citations omitted.) State v. Rios, 30 Conn. App. 712, 715-16, 622 A.2d 618 (1993). "Our role is ... to review claims based on a complete factual record developed by a trial court.... Without the necessary factual and legal conclusions furnished by the trial court ... any decision made by us respecting [the defendant's claims] would be entirely speculative." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Chase Manhattan Bank/City Trust v. AECO Elevator Co., supra, 608-609. "We have, on occasion, reviewed claims of error in light of an unsigned transcript as long as the transcript contains a sufficiently detailed and concise statement of the trial court's findings." Bank of America, FSB v. Franco, 57 Conn. App. 688, 691 n.1, 751 A.2d 394 (2000). Where the transcript does not reveal the basis of the court's factual conclusion, we will not review the appellant's claims. See Centerbank v. Gross, 31 Conn. App. 38, 39-40, 622 A.2d 1066 (1993).⁸ With respect to the defendant's claims that the court improperly changed the child's school, gave the plaintiff physical custody of the parties' son and awarded the plaintiff child support, we are unable to discern the factual bases of the court's decisions from the transcript and decline to review the defendant's claims. The same is true with respect to the court's rulings on other motions, except those noted in part II B of this opinion.

"The trial court did not prepare a written memorandum of decision and did not sign the transcript of its oral decision, as required by Practice Book § 64-1. The duty to provide [the Appellate Court] with a record adequate for review rests with the appellant.... We have frequently declined to review claims where the appellant has failed to provide the court with an adequate record...