38 Conn. App. 168 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1995
The issue to be resolved in this decision is whether the appellees, TEPA Associates (TEPA)
The plaintiff brought an action to quiet title to a parcel of land in Madison. The trial court granted the plaintiff’s motion for default against the defendants, the town of Madison and all unknown persons having an interest in the property. The court then rendered judgment quieting title in the plaintiff. More than two and one-half years later, TEPA and Candlewood moved to open the judgment on the ground that they held title to the property. The court granted their motion and opened the judgment.
After the plaintiff appealed from that decision, TEPA and Candlewood filed a motion for stay of ancillary proceedings pursuant to Practice Book § 4183 (4).
As part of this court’s supervision and control of proceedings on appeal, it is within our discretion to “order a stay of any proceedings ancillary to a case on appeal.” Practice Book § 4183 (4). TEPA and Candlewood seek a stay of their four administrative appeals because, they claim, the issue of ownership of the property in question is at the center of this appeal and their administrative appeals. They argue that the ownership issue should be resolved by this court before it is considered by the trial court in the context of the administrative appeals.
With respect to the appeal pending in this court, the plaintiff has appealed from the granting of a motion to open the judgment. The only issue that can be raised in such an appeal is whether the trial court had the power to open the judgment. Solomon v. Keiser, 212 Conn. 741, 746-47, 562 A.2d 524 (1989); Connecticut Light & Power Co. v. Costle, 179 Conn. 415, 418-19, 426 A.2d 1324 (1980); Sanchez v. Prestia, 29 Conn. App. 157, 159 n.3, 612 A.2d 824, cert. denied, 224 Conn. 913, 617 A.2d 167 (1992). At the time the plaintiff appealed, the action to quiet title had been opened and the issue of ownership of the property had not yet been finally decided by the trial court. That issue, therefore, cannot be before this court at this time.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Practice Book § 4183 provides in relevant part: “The supervision and control of the proceedings on appeal shall be in the court having appellate jurisdiction from the time the appeal is filed .... The court may . . . on its own motion or upon motion of any party ... (4) order a stay of any proceedings ancillary to a case on appeal . . . .”
TEPA and Candlewood represent that they took four appeals from the agency’s decision granting the plaintiff’s applications. It is unclear why four appeals were taken.
Such issue could be considered in a later appeal from a judgment on the merits of the action to quiet title, in the event we decide that the trial court properly exercised its power in opening the judgment.
TEPA and Candlewood may have recourse in both the trial court and the agency. Under General Statutes § 4-183 (f), the administrative appeals