Town of Stratford v. 500 N. Ave., LLC

• Full Citation: Town of Stratford v. 500 N. Ave., LLC, 210 Conn.App. 718, 271 A.3d 137 (Conn. App. 2022)
• Decision Date: 22 February 2022
• Citation: 210 Conn.App. 718,271 A.3d 137
• Docket Number: AC 44905
• Parties: TOWN OF STRATFORD v. 500 NORTH AVENUE, LLC, et al.
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals

210 Conn.App. 718

271 A.3d 137

TOWN OF STRATFORD

v.500 NORTH AVENUE, LLC, et al.

AC 44905

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Considered October 6, 2021

Officially released February 22, 2022

Bryan L. LeClerc, Milford, in support of the motion.

Kenneth A. Votre, New Haven, in opposition to the motion.

Bright, C. J., and Cradle and Clark, Js.

CLARK, J.

This is an appeal by the defendant 500 North Avenue, LLC,¹ from a judgment of foreclosure rendered in favor of the plaintiff, the town of Stratford. The plaintiff has moved to dismiss the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the ground that the defendant lacks standing to maintain the appeal because it no longer owns the property at issue and, therefore, is not aggrieved by the judgment. Although the defendant concedes that it has no ownership interest in the property, it opposes the motion on the ground that it is aggrieved by the possible collateral consequences of the judgment. Specifically, the defendant argues that the judgment establishes its underlying tax obligations to the plaintiff and could be used by the plaintiff to establish the defendant's liability in a future, independent action by the plaintiff to collect unpaid taxes not satisfied by a judgment in this case. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the defendant is not aggrieved by the judgment and, therefore, lacks standing to pursue this appeal. As a result, we grant the motion to dismiss and dismiss the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

On May 29, 2019, the plaintiff commenced this action pursuant to General Statutes § 12-181² against the defendant and others to foreclose seven municipal tax liens assessed against certain real property located in Stratford (property). The property had been owned by the defendant until shortly before the action was commenced. The parties agree that title to the property vested in JRB Holding Co., LLC (JRB Holding), prior to the commencement of the present case.³ The plaintiff filed a revised complaint on October 3, 2019, and the defendant filed an answer and special defenses on November 15, 2019.

In June, 2020, the plaintiff filed a motion for summary judgment as to liability against the defendant and JRB Holding. The defendant objected, and, on October 20, 2020, the trial court, Spader , J. , granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment. On November 5, 2020, the court denied the defendant's motion to reargue the decision granting the motion for summary judgment.

The plaintiff then moved for a judgment of strict foreclosure. Two defendants who are not parties to the present appeal, Mamie M. Colacurcio and Roger K. Colacurcio, moved for a judgment of foreclosure by sale, on the grounds that there was substantial equity in the property and because the United States was a party to the action. See 28 U.S.C. § 2410 (c) (2018) ("an action to foreclose a mortgage or other lien, naming the United States as a party under this section, must seek judicial sale"). On August 2, 2021, the trial court, Stevens , J. , rendered a judgment of foreclosure by sale. The court found the amount of the debt to be $179,293.32 and the fair market value of the property to be $500,000, and ordered the foreclosure sale to take place on October 16, 2021. The defendant filed the present appeal on August 19, 2021, challenging the judgment of foreclosure by sale. The plaintiff moved to dismiss this appeal on August 30, 2021, and the defendant objected.⁴

In its motion to dismiss, the plaintiff argues that the defendant lacks standing to bring this appeal because it is not aggrieved by the judgment of foreclosure by sale. Specifically, the plaintiff contends that the defendant has no interest in the property, and that, if a deficiency exists after the foreclosure sale, the plaintiff may not pursue a deficiency judgment against the defendant. The defendant counters that it is aggrieved because the judgment establishes its tax liability to the plaintiff and would operate to collaterally estop it from contesting that liability in any future, independent action brought by the plaintiff pursuant to General Statutes § 12-161.⁵ For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the defendant is not aggrieved by the judgment.

"A threshold inquiry of this court upon every appeal presented to it is the question of appellate jurisdiction. ... It is well established that the subject matter jurisdiction of the Appellate Court and of [our Supreme Court] is governed by [General Statutes] § 52-263, which provides that an aggrieved party may appeal to the court having jurisdiction from the final judgment of the court. ... [O]nce the question of lack of jurisdiction of a court is raised, [it] must be disposed of no matter in what form it is presented ... and the court must fully resolve it before proceeding further with the case. ... If it becomes apparent to the court that such jurisdiction is lacking, the appeal must be dismissed." (Citation omitted; emphasis omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Trumbull v. Palmer , 123 Conn. App. 244, 249–50, 1 A.3d 1121, cert. denied, 299 Conn. 907, 10 A.3d 526 (2010).

"Standing is established by showing that the party ... is authorized by statute to bring an action, in other words statutorily aggrieved, or is classically aggrieved. ... The fundamental test for determining [classical] aggrievement encompasses a well-settled twofold determination: [F]irst, the party claiming aggrievement must successfully demonstrate a specific, personal and legal interest in [the challenged action], as distinguished from a general interest, such as is the concern of all members of the community as a whole. Second, the party claiming aggrievement must successfully establish that this specific personal and legal interest has been specially and injuriously affected by the [challenged action]." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)

Cimmino v. Household Realty Corp. , 104 Conn. App. 392, 395, 933 A.2d 1226 (2007), cert. denied, 285 Conn. 912, 943 A.3d 470 (2008).

Because the defendant was divested of its ownership interest in the property at the time the judgment of foreclosure by sale was rendered, it did not have a specific personal and legal interest in the transfer of title to the property through the foreclosure sale. See Trumbull v. Palmer , supra, 123 Conn. App. at 251–53, 1 A.3d 1121 (proposed intervenor who had no interest in property lacked direct and substantial interest in subject matter of foreclosure litigation). Moreover, even if the foreclosure sale proceeds are insufficient to satisfy the full amount of the defendant's alleged tax obligations, the plaintiff may not pursue a deficiency judgment against the defendant in the present action pursuant to General Statutes § 49-14. See Winchester v. Northwest Associates , 255 Conn. 379, 386–87, 767 A.2d 687 (2001).

As the defendant correctly observes, however, the plaintiff conceivably could pursue an independent action against it pursuant to § 12-161 to recover any unpaid taxes for the years during which the defendant owned the property, if the foreclosure sale fails to generate sufficient proceeds to satisfy all of those alleged tax liabilities; see id., at 387–88, 767 A.2d 687 ("a plaintiff who forecloses on a tax lien is not without a remedy to recover the balance of any taxes owed by a defendant: the plaintiff is free to commence a second action against the defendant for that purpose"); and the liens are not extinguished by virtue of the plaintiff obtaining title to the property. Cf. American Tax Funding, LLC v. First Eagle Corp. , 196 Conn. App. 298,...