6 Conn. App. 301 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1986
Lead Opinion
The defendants Pearl A. Tufveson and Ethel M. Tufveson, have appealed from a Superior Court order conveying to the plaintiff, William C. Lee, title to a parcel of real estate pursuant to General Statutes § 52-22. The plaintiff commenced this action against the defendants Pearl A. Tufveson and Ethel
On February 7, 1984, after the defendants refused to comply with the stipulated judgment, the plaintiff filed a motion requesting the Superior Court to pass title to the subject property pursuant to General Statutes § 52-22. On July 5,1984, the court ordered the conveyance of title of the subject property pursuant to General Statutes § 52-22. The defendants have appealed the granting of this motion.
The defendants allege that the Superior Court order transferring title to the subject property pursuant to General Statutes § 52-22 was improper for three reasons. The defendants claim (1) that the court’s action modified the terms of a stipulated judgment without
The defendants’ argue that the court’s granting of the plaintiff’s motion to pass title to the real estate pursuant to General Statutes § 52-22 unilaterally modified the stipulated judgment. “When parties to a lawsuit voluntarily enter into a consent decree that is entered on the court records, certain well established consequences follow. Although a consent judgment is a contract rather than an adjudication on the merits . . . such a judgment is as conclusive as if it had been rendered upon controverted facts.” (Citation omitted.) Connecticut Pharmaceutical Assn., Inc. v. Milano, 191 Conn. 555, 558, 468 A.2d 1230 (1983). The terms of a consent judgment may not be enlarged or lessened by the court. Bryan v. Reynolds, 143 Conn. 456, 460-61, 123 A.2d 192 (1956); Owsiejko v. American Hardware Corporation, 137 Conn. 185, 187-88, 75 A.2d 404 (1950). Nevertheless, “[hjaving found noncompliance, the court, in the exercise of its equitable powers, necessarily [has] the authority to fashion whatever orders [are] required to protect the integrity of the original consent judgment.” Connecticut Pharmaceutical Assn., Inc. v. Milano, supra, 563-64. We find that the court did not enlarge or lessen the terms of the stipulated judgment, but rather only protected the judgment’s integrity by conveying the property.
“In the interpretation of statutes, the intent of the legislature is to be found not in what it meant to say but in what it did say. State v. Smith, 194 Conn. 213, 222, 479 A.2d 814 (1984); Gomeau v. Forrest, 176 Conn. 523, 526, 409 A.2d 1006 (1979). A primary rule of statutory construction is that if the language of the statute is clear, it is assumed that the words themselves express the intent of the legislature; State v. Smith, supra, 221; Houston v. Warden, 169 Conn. 247, 251, 363 A.2d 121 (1975) . . . and there is no need to construe the statute. Bell v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 173 Conn. 223, 226, 377 A.2d 299 (1977). The words of a statute are to be given their commonly approved meaning unless a contrary intent is clearly expressed. Holmquist v. Manson, 168 Conn. 389, 393, 362 A.2d 971 (1975). Where the legislative intent is clear and unambiguous, there is no need for statutory construction or a review of the legislative history. Moreover, it is not the province of a court to supply what the legislature chose to omit. The legislature is supreme in the area of legislation, and courts must apply statutory enactments according to their plain terms. In re Petition of State’s Attorney, Cook County, Illinois, 179 Conn. 102, 107, 425 A.2d 588 (1979); Weingarten v. Allstate Ins. Co., 169 Conn. 502, 507-508, 363 A.2d 1055
The statute provides the court with a more simple and direct method of transferring title than ordering a party to execute a deed especially when the court’s intention is merely to transfer legal title. Atlas Garage & Custom Builders, Inc. v. Hurley, 167 Conn. 248, 257, 355 A.2d 286 (1974); Mendrochowicz v. Wolfe, 139 Conn. 506, 510, 95 A.2d 260 (1953); Robinson v. Cross, 22 Conn. 171, 175-76 (1852); Bascetta v. Bascetta, 1 Conn. App. 256, 470 A.2d 1232 (1984); Manyak v. Manyak, 29 Conn. Sup. 1, 268 A.2d 806 (1970).
General Statutes § 52-22 provides in part: “The superior court in the exercise of its equitable jurisdiction may pass title . . . .” Specific performance is an equitable remedy. Dick v. Dick, 167 Conn. 210, 221-22, 355 A.2d 110 (1974). Therefore, General Statutes § 52-22 is a proper way to execute this stipulated judgment in which the court ordered the transfer of legal title.
There is no error.
The original judgment read in part: “The Court, having heard the parties on the stipulation, finds that the judgment should be entered in accordance with the stipulation.
“Whereupon it is adjudged that the defendants shall convey for purchase to the plaintiff the real estate hereinbefore described upon payment by the plaintiff of the sum of $94,000.
“It is further ordered that the defendants shall sign, within seven days of December 15,1982, a deed of conveyance of said real estate. It is ordered that this deed of conveyance shall be delivered to Mr. James T. Borger of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company who shall, in turn, deliver the deed to the plaintiff upon the payment of $94,000 by the plaintiff. This transaction is ordered to be completed on or before February 15, 1983.”
Insofar as the dissent relies upon Garguilo v. Moore, 156 Conn. 359, 361, 242 A.2d 716 (1968), Gentile v. Ives, 163 Conn. 281, 303 A.2d 720 (1972), and Eco Industries, Inc. v. Executive Monarch Hotel, Inc., 4 Conn. App. 659, 662, 496 A.2d 233 (1985), this reliance appears to be misplaced. In Garguilo, while the court stated that an action on the judgment was acceptable, it did not hold that it was the plaintiffs only remedy. Garguilo v. Moore, supra, 361. Further, the Garguilo court noted that the case was unique because the stipulated judgment lacked clarity and finality and was not susceptible to immediate enforcement. Id., 364. A resolution of the issues raised in Garguilo required the trial court to interpret the terms of the consent judgment. Id., 365. Certainly, that is not the issue in the present action. Clarity and finality are present and the trial court merely enforced its judgment.
In Gentile and Eco Industries, Inc., the motions in question were unknown to Connecticut practice. See Gentile v. Ives, supra, 281 (“Motion for Order in Aid of Judgment”); Eco Industries, Inc. v. Executive Monarch Hotel, Inc.,
Finally, both Gentile and Garguilo involved only money judgments, not specific performance. It is also noted that in Gentile and Garguilo, the Supreme Court upheld the procedural devices used by the trial court. See Gentile v. Ives, supra, 283; Garguilo v. Moore, supra.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I dissent. The majority opinion permits a party to return to court more than one year subsequent to the entry of judgment and to alter the terms of that judgment merely by filing a motion. Such a procedure totally disregards the legal concepts of finality of judgments and compliance with proper procedures for enforcing judgments provided by our common law and rules of practice.
The courts of this state have often expressed disfavor for procedures which undermine “the important principle of finality [of judgments].” Meinket v. Levinson, 193 Conn. 110, 113, 474 A.2d 454 (1984); see also Steve Viglione Sheet Metal Co. v. Sakonchick, 190 Conn. 707, 713, 462 A.2d 1037 (1983); Hall v. Hall, 186 Conn. 118, 122, 439 A.2d 447 (1982); Fairfield Lease Corporation v. Romano’s Auto Service, 4 Conn. App. 495, 497, 495 A.2d 286 (1985); Grayson v. Grayson, 4 Conn. App. 275, 296, 494 A.2d 576 (1985). “ ‘Public policy requires that a term be put to litigation and that judgments, as solemn records upon which valuable rights rest, should not lightly be disturbed . . . .’” Lampson Lumber Co. v. Hoer, 139 Conn. 294, 297, 93 A.2d 143 (1952), quoting 1 Freeman, Judgments (5th Ed.) § 305 p. 602. The
Further, the majority opinion ignores the existence of an appropriate procedural vehicle by which the plaintiff could have obtained precisely the result which he sought, namely, the enforcement of the terms of the judgment. By simply alleging noncompliance with the judgment, the plaintiff could have, and should have, brought suit thereon. See Garguilo v. Moore, 156 Conn. 359, 361, 242 A.2d 716 (1968). Merely filing a motion requesting that the court order enforcement of the judgment was legally and procedurally impermissible.
The majority’s argument that General Statutes § 52-22 is clear and unambiguous in clothing the court with the equitable power to transfer property is entirely accurate, but it misses the mark in this case. The statute, while literally fitting the object of this case, merely grants equitable jurisdiction to a court in a proper case, but does not specify the procedure to be observed in its use. The majority opinion reads into the statute the power to employ a simple motion, for which there is no statutory or procedural authority, to wrest property from its owner.
The majority also ignored that the plaintiff’s motion is “a creature not normally spotted in Connecticut’s jurisprudential forests.” Eco Industries, Inc. v. Executive Monarch Hotel, Inc., 4 Conn. App. 659, 662, 496 A.2d 233 (1985). A genetically similar creature, entitled a “Motion for Order in Aid of Judgment,” was at issue in Gentile v. Ives, 163 Conn. 281, 303 A.2d 720 (1972). There the court remarked upon the impropriety of the
The majority asserts that Gentile and Eco are inapposite to the present case because “[transferring property pursuant to General Statutes § 52-22 ... is not unknown to Connecticut practice.” I do not, however, assert that such transfers are foreign to Connecticut practice. Rather, I assert that the procedure used by the plaintiff to obtain the transfer was unknown to Connecticut practice and was improper.
For the foregoing reasons I dissent.