PER CURIAM.
The mortgagor defendant, John Tornatore,
The following undisputed facts are relevant to this appeal. The plaintiff is the holder of a mortgage and note on the defendant's property located on Casey Lane in Wethersfield (property). The note entered default, and the plaintiff accelerated the amount due and declared the
On April 20, 2010, the plaintiff filed a motion for default for failure to appear and a motion for judgment of strict foreclosure. The court granted both motions. The defendant failed to redeem the property, and the plaintiff filed a motion for deficiency judgment against the defendant on August 27, 2010.
On September 30, 2010, the defendant filed a motion to open the judgment of strict foreclosure. By way of two separate affidavits in support of the motion, the defendant claimed that he was not served with the complaint and did not receive notice of the motion for default or the motion for judgment of strict foreclosure. The motion to open appeared on the short calendar for October 12, 2010, and was marked "ready" for argument. Counsel for the plaintiff appeared and objected to the motion, arguing that title to the property had vested in the plaintiff. Counsel for the defendant did not attend. The court denied the motion and awarded the plaintiff $150 in attorney's fees. The defendant filed the present appeal on October 18, 2010.
The court issued an articulation on September 13, 2011. Citing General Statutes § 49-15(a)(1) and (2),
The defendant claims that the court abused its discretion in denying his motion to open the judgment of strict foreclosure and in awarding the plaintiff attorney's fees. He argues that he did not have proper notice of the foreclosure proceedings. We are not persuaded.
"[A] judgment of strict foreclosure ordinarily cannot be opened after the law day has passed, [unless] the judgment [is] attacked on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction over the party challenging it.... Once title has vested, no practical relief is available [p]rovided that this vesting has occurred pursuant to an authorized exercise of jurisdiction by the trial court...." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Highgate Condominium Assn., Inc. v. Miller, 129 Conn.App. 429, 434-35, 21 A.3d 853 (2011).
The defendant's claim that the court's award of attorney's fees was improper is without merit. "[W]e review the trial court's decision to award attorney's fees for abuse of discretion.... Under the abuse of discretion standard of review, [w]e will make every reasonable presumption in favor of upholding the trial court's ruling, and only upset it for a manifest abuse of discretion.... [Thus, our] review of such rulings is limited to the questions of whether the trial court correctly applied the law and reasonably could have reached the conclusion that it did." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Noel v. Ribbits, LLC, 132 Conn.App. 531, 534-35, 35 A.3d 1078 (2011). After reviewing the record, we conclude that the court's award of attorney's fees to the plaintiff was reasonable and not an abuse of its discretion.
The judgment is affirmed.
3. "(2) Any judgment foreclosing the title to real estate by strict foreclosure may be opened after title has become absolute in any encumbrancer upon agreement of each party to the foreclosure action who filed an appearance in the action and any person who acquired an interest in the real estate after title became absolute in any encumbrancer, provided (A) such judgment may not be opened more than four months after the date such judgment was entered or more than thirty days after title became absolute in any encumbrancer, whichever is later, and (B) the rights and interests of each party, regardless of whether the party filed an appearance in the action, and any person who acquired an interest in the real estate after title became absolute in any encumbrancer, are restored to the status that existed on the date the judgment was entered." (Emphasis added.)