Court Opinion

ID: 9749742
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 17:01:58.615128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:57.212028
License: Public Domain

Shea, J.
(concurring). My only reason for writing separately is simply to clarify what I understand to be the effect of the remand directing that the action be dismissed. I would have preferred that we simply direct that judgment enter for the defendant, following the precedent of Simonelli v. Fitzgerald, 156 Conn. 49, 238 A.2d 418 (1968), in which such a judgment of the trial court rendered in a similar case was affirmed on appeal.
“Dismissal” is a word applied to the termination of an action in a variety of contexts and it imports different legal consequences. Jenkins v. Ellis, 169 Conn. 154, 159, 362 A.2d 831 (1975); 24 Am. Jur. 2d, Dismissal, Discontinuance, and Nonsuit § 1. I do not believe that use of the word here implies that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to determine the statutory cause of action under § 49-13 pleaded which, under the narrow reading of that statute approved in Simonelli, required the plaintiff to establish that there was no genuine issue of fact concerning the invalidity of the mortgage to be discharged. See Practice Book § 384. The failure of the plaintiff to sustain this burden did not deprive the trial court of jurisdiction over the action set forth in the complaint.
The inability of the plaintiff to present a case qualifying for a discharge of the mortgage under the statute does not warrant an adjudication declaring the defendant’s mortgage to be valid. For this reason a judgment “for the defendant” might be *487misunderstood. Our determination does not foreclose the plaintiff from bringing a different action to obtain the same relief which she has inappropriately sought under § 49-13. She could not, of course, renew this statutory action relying upon the same grounds alleged in this complaint.
As I understand these consequences to flow from our direction to “dismiss the action,” I agree fully with the court’s opinion.