Gordon v. Tufano
Gordon v. Tufano
Opinion of the Court
This is an action pursuant to General Statutes § 49-13,
No payment was ever made by the plaintiff and on or about March 17, 1959, the defendant brought an action seeking to foreclose the mortgage. As a result of this, the property was encumbered by a lis pendens noticing the commencement of the foreclosure action. On or about September 19, 1959,
The trial court found that the plaintiff has been in undisturbed possession of her property for at least seventeen years after the expiration of the time limited in the mortgage for the full performance of the conditions thereof and for seventeen years next preceding the commencement of any action pursuant to General Statutes § 49-13 (a) (1). The court also found that the seventeen year period had passed without any payment on account of the mortgage or of any other act within that time recognizing its existence as a valid mortgage. General Statutes § 49-13 (c). It held that the mortgage and the lis pendens were invalid as liens against the real estate and awarded damages to the plaintiff in the amount of $1000 plus costs. Finally, the court held “that the mortgage note subject to this action violates the terms of Section 37-5 and 37-9 of the Connecticut General Statutes and is void nunc pro tune and unenforceable.”
At the conclusion of trial and during final arguments, the court raised, for the first time, the usury issue by stating: “I am going to ask both gentlemen
Counsel for the defendant responded by stating that the usury issue was not pleaded and that, if it had been, he might have elicited more testimony on the issue at the trial.
Although the defendant forcefully argues that the court should have allowed a reasonable opportunity to make a factual showing about whether the note, in fact, violated General Statutes §§ 37-5 and 37-9; see Hamm v. Taylor, 180 Conn. 491, 497, 429 A.2d 946 (1980); we do not base our decision on that ground. We find that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to determine the validity of the note on the usury ground because that issue had not been raised in the pleadings. Lobsenz v. Davidoff, 182 Conn. 111, 116-17, 438 A.2d 21 (1980). We also find that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to discharge the mortgage pursuant to § 49-13 because
The plaintiff expressly brought this action pursuant to General Statutes § 49-13.
The case of Kaufman v. Samuelson, 134 N.J.L. 573, 49 A.2d 479 (1946), presented an issue strikingly similar to the one before us. In Kaufman, the focal issue was whether the judge had the authority to entertain the mortgagor’s application to direct the county clerk to cancel a real estate mortgage of record under a New Jersey statute permitting such action where no person representing the holder of the mortgage therein “shall ‘appear at the time and place specified therein [on the rule to show cause directed to and served upon the mortgagee issued on the mortgagor’s application for cancellation]’ . . . .” Kaufman v. Samuelson, supra, 576. On the
In this opinion Peters, J., concurred.
General Statutes § 49-13 provides in relevant part: “petition POE dischaege op moetgages oe op ineffective ATTACHMENT, LIS pendens oe lien, damages, (a) When the record title to real property is encumbered (1) by any undischarged mortgage, and (A) the mortgagor or those owning his interest therein have been in undisturbed possession of the property for at least seventeen years after the expiration of the time limited in the mortgage for the full performance of the conditions thereof, and for seventeen years next preceding the commencement of any aetion under this section, or (B) when the promissory note or other written evidence of the indebtedness secured by the mortgage is payable on demand and seventeen years have passed without any payment on account of such note or other written evidence of indebtedness, or (C) when the mortgage does not disclose the time when the note or indebtedness is payable or disclose the time for full performance of the conditions of the mortgage and seventeen years have passed without any payment on account of the promissory note or other written evidence of indebtedness, or (D) when the note or evidence of indebtedness has been paid or bona fide offer and tender of the payment made pursuant to section 49-8, or (E) when the mortgage has become invalid, and in any of such eases no release of the encumbrance to secure such note or evidence of indebtedness has been given, or (2) by a foreclosed mortgage and the mortgagor has made a bona fide offer and tender of payment of the foreclosure judgment on or before his law day and the mortgagee has refused to accept payment, or (3) by an attachment, lis pendens or other lien whieh has become of
(e) Such notice having been given according to the order and duly proven, the court may proceed to a hearing of the cause at such time as it deems proper, and, if no evidence is offered of any payment on account of the debt secured by the mortgage within said period of seventeen years, or of any other act within said period in recognition of its existence as a valid mortgage, or if the court finds the mortgage has been satisfied but no release given as evidence of such satisfaction, or if the court finds that a bona fide offer and tender of payment of the foreclosure judgment or mortgage has been made and refused, or if the court finds the attachment, lis pendens or other lien has become of no effect, the court may render a judgment reciting the facts and its findings in relation thereto and declaring the mortgage, foreclosure judgment, attachment, lis pendens or other lien invalid as a lien against the real estate, and may order payment of any balance of indebtedness due on the mortgage or foreclosure judgment to the clerk of the court to be held for the benefit of the mortgagee or the persons interested and to be paid to the mortgagee by the clerk of the court upon application of the mortgagee or persons interested following the execution of a release of mortgage.”
The entire file for this foreclosure action was destroyed by law, by the clerk’s office on July 19, 1966.
General Statutes § 37-5 provides: “Sec. 37-5. notes not to be ACCEPTED FOE GEEATEE AMOUNTS THAN LOANED. No person and no firm or corporation, or agent thereof, shall, with intent to evade the provisions of section 37-4, accept a note or notes for a greater amount than that actually loaned.”
General Statutes § 37-9 provides: “Sec. 37-9. loans to which peohibitions do not apply. The provisions of sections 37-4, 37-5 and 37-6 shall not affect any loan made prior to September 12, 1911, nor any loan made by any national bank or any bank or trust company incorporated under the laws of this state, any federal or state chartered savings and loan association or any credit union or federal credit union nor any bona fide mortgage of real property for a sum in excess of five thousand dollars, nor any loan carrying an interest rate of not more than eighteen per cent per annum made to a foreign or domestic corporation organized for profit and engaged
The relief sought by the plaintiff was a “ (1) J udgment reciting the facts contained herein declaring the said mortgage and lis pendens invalid as against said real estate; (2) Damages of One Thousand ($1,000.00) Dollars; (3) Such other legal and equitable relief as the court deems appropriate.”
It also appears that the language of General Statutes § 49-13, itself, does not allow a court to hold the note invalid but, instead, constrains the court to declare “the mortgage, foreclosure judgment, attachment, lis pendens or other lien invalid as a lien against the real estate . . . .” See § 49-13 (e).
The plaintiff could bring an equitable action to quiet title, exclusive of the statutory remedy, to settle the matters at issue.
In Kaufman, the New Jersey Supreme Court directed that “an order be presented staying the proceedings and restraining the judge from proceeding further with the cause, without prejudice, however, to tho right of the mortgagor or mortgagee to institute such other available proceeding as either may deem fit and proper.” Kaufman v. Samuelson, 134 N.J.L. 573, 577, 49 A.2d 479 (1946).
Concurring Opinion
(concurring). I concur in the result reached by the majority but not in the route used to attain it. General Statutes § 49-13 is a statute that gives only a narrow and limited jurisdiction. See Simonelli v. Fitzgerald, 156 Conn. 49, 53-54, 238 A.2d 418 (1968). “The statute [§ 49-13] gives the court no jurisdiction to determine the validity or invalidity of a disputed mortgage of long standing.” (Emphasis added.) Simonelli v. Fitzgerald, supra, 54. The purpose of such a statute “is to provide a simple method whereby a mortgage, the invalidity of which is undisputed, may be declared invalid by the court and removed as a cloud on the title to the property.” (Emphasis added.) Simonelli v. Fitzgerald, supra. It is thus apparent from Simonelli that the validity or invalidity of a mortgage is a determination a court has no jurisdiction to make under § 49-13. The trial court, however, did hold that this mortgage was usurious thus determining its validity — a holding it was clearly without jurisdiction to make. Having done this, it was also without jurisdiction to do anything further in the name of, or under, § 49-13 and it was without jurisdiction to reach the matter of the evidence of “recognition” of the mortgage which the majority has little difficulty in
The case of Kaufman v. Samuelson, 134 N.J.L. 573, 49 A.2d 479 (1946), cited by the majority lends support. In that case the New Jersey court pointed out that the judge’s “authorization” to order cancellation of the mortgage under the New Jersey statute “is limited to cases where no person representing the holder of the mortgage or interest therein shall ‘appear at the time and place specified [by the court in its rule to show cause why the mortgage should not be cancelled].’” Kaufman v. Samuelson, supra. Because someone did legally “appear” representing the holder of the mortgage, the court held that the judge “was without authority or jurisdiction . . .” to cancel the mortgage. Kaufman v. Samuelson, supra, 577. In the case before us, as in Kaufman, once the trial court held the mortgage invalid for usury, as it patently did, the court was without further jurisdiction to act and should have dismissed the matter for lack of jurisdiction.
Therefore, I concur in the result.
In this opinion Aumentado, J., concurred.
Concurring Opinion
(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
As I understand these consequences to flow from our direction to “dismiss the action,” I agree fully with the court’s opinion.
Reference
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- Sophie Gordon v. John Tufano
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