U.S. Bank, National Assn. v. Madison

196 Conn. App. 267
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedMarch 3, 2020
DocketAC42228
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 196 Conn. App. 267 (U.S. Bank, National Assn. v. Madison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U.S. Bank, National Assn. v. Madison, 196 Conn. App. 267 (Colo. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.

All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative.

The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** U.S. BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, TRUSTEE v. MARGIT MADISON ET AL. (AC 42228) Keller, Elgo and Bright, Js.

Syllabus

The plaintiff bank sought to foreclose a mortgage on certain real property owned by the defendant M following her default on a promissory note secured by the mortgage, which was executed by M on behalf of the defendant D in favor of M Co., as nominee for A Co. Thereafter, M Co. assigned the mortgage to the plaintiff, who then commenced this foreclosure action against the defendants. The plaintiff subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment as to liability, which the trial court granted. Thereafter, the trial court granted the plaintiff’s motion for a judgment of strict foreclosure and rendered judgment thereon, in which it determined the amount of the outstanding debt and the fair market value of the property and set the law days. M then filed notice of her pending chapter 7 bankruptcy petition pursuant to the rule of practice (§ 14-1) pertaining to bankruptcy stays. In the schedule of creditors filed by M in the bankruptcy proceeding, she listed the plaintiff as having a claim secured by the subject property but did not identify the claim as contingent, unliquidated or disputed. She also represented that none of the plaintiff’s claim was unsecured. The bankruptcy trustee of M’s estate thereafter determined that there was no property available for distribu- tion from the estate and that the estate was fully administered and requested that he be discharged as trustee. The Bankruptcy Court granted the discharge and closed the bankruptcy case. After the law days had passed during the pendency of M’s bankruptcy proceedings, the plaintiff filed a motion to reenter the judgment after termination of the bankruptcy stay to, inter alia, make new findings as to the debt and fair market value of the property, reenter the judgment of strict foreclosure and set new law days. M filed an objection to the motion, arguing that she was not authorized to execute the subject note and mortgage to M Co. on behalf of D because D did not validly execute the power of attorney that ostensibly appointed her as his attorney-in- fact, and, therefore, the improperly executed power of attorney rendered the note and mortgage nugatory. The trial court overruled M’s objection, concluding that she lacked standing to raise that defense. After granting the plaintiff’s motion to reenter the judgment, the trial court rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure, and M appealed to this court. Held that M could not prevail on her claim that the trial court erred by concluding that she lacked standing to object to the plaintiff’s motion to reenter the judgment of strict foreclosure: M lacked standing to pursue her defense to the plaintiff’s interest in the property that the mortgage on the property may be invalid due to the alleged improper power of attorney, as her failure to notify the bankruptcy trustee of that defense by not disclosing it as an asset of the bankruptcy estate on the relevant bank- ruptcy form, precluded her from raising the defense after the discharge of the bankruptcy estate; moreover, M’s contentions that Beck & Beck, LLC v. Costello (178 Conn. App. 112), which this court applied in reaching its decision, is inapplicable and that the plaintiff’s reliance on it conflates a debtor’s claim for money damages as an asset of the bankruptcy estate with a debtor’s defense to enforcement of an invalid lien were unavailing, as her arguments circumscribed far too narrowly her disclosure obliga- tions to the bankruptcy trustee because the relevant bankruptcy form required M to state whether the plaintiff’s claim was contingent or disputed, and, therefore, necessarily, she was required to disclose her purported defense, and her failure to do so deprived her of standing to assert the defense in the trial court; furthermore, M’s claim that either the bankruptcy trustee or any creditor could move to reopen the bankruptcy estate if the trial court were to find that the mortgage is invalid ignored the threshold issue that M lacked the legal capacity to raise the defense, and, therefore, the trial court lacked the jurisdiction to hear it, as M’s failure to list the defense as an asset of the bankruptcy estate caused the defense to remain the property of the estate and to vest with the trustee, thereby precluding her from pursuing it for her own benefit. Argued October 11, 2019—officially released March 3, 2020

Procedural History

Action to foreclose a mortgage on certain real prop- erty owned by the named defendant, and for other relief, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of New Haven, where the defendant Eric Demander, Jr., was defaulted for failure to appear; thereafter, the court, Spader, J., granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment as to liability; subsequently, the court granted the plaintiff’s motion for a judgment of strict foreclosure and rendered judgment thereon; thereafter, following the termination of the named defendant’s bankruptcy stay, the court, Hon. Anthony V. Avallone, judge trial referee, granted the plaintiff’s motion to reenter the judgment and rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure, from which the named defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed. Earle Giovanniello, for the appellant (named defendant). Matthew B. Johnson, for the appellee (plaintiff). Opinion

BRIGHT, J. The defendant Margit Madison1 appeals from the judgment of strict foreclosure rendered by the trial court in favor of the plaintiff, U.S. Bank, National Association, as Trustee for MASTR Adjustable Rate Mortgages Trust 2007-1, Mortgage Pass-Through Certifi- cates, Series 2007-1, following the termination of the defendant’s bankruptcy stay. On appeal, the defendant claims that the court erred by concluding that she lacked standing to object to the plaintiff’s motion to reenter the judgment of strict foreclosure. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. The following facts and procedural history are rele- vant to our resolution of this appeal. On April 18, 2017, the plaintiff commenced a foreclosure action by service of process on the defendant and Eric Demander, Jr.2 The plaintiff alleged in its complaint that, on October 11, 2006, Eric S. Demander, who is now deceased, exe- cuted a mortgage in favor of Mortgage Electronic Regis- tration Systems, Inc. (MERS), as nominee for American Brokers Conduit, which secured a debt evidenced by a $268,000 promissory note executed on the same date and made payable to American Brokers Conduit.3 To secure the note, Eric S.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 Conn. App. 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-bank-national-assn-v-madison-connappct-2020.