Ex-Wife Sought Foreclosure When Husband Did Not Pay Back Loan
by
Joseph C. Maya on Jun. 30, 2017
Divorce & Family Law Divorce Real Estate Foreclosure
Summary: A blog post about a case in which a woman placed a judgment lien on her ex-husband's property after he had not payed back his loan with her.
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The defendant appealed to the appellate court from the judgment of foreclosure by sale of a judgment lien that had been placed on his property by the plaintiff to secure an order in the parties’ prior dissolution judgment. In the dissolution judgment, the court had ordered the defendant to repay the plaintiff with interest for certain loans that she made to him during the marriage. Neither child support nor alimony was awarded to either party. To secure the repayment of the loans, the plaintiff filed in the land records a certificate of judgment lien against the defendant’s property and, when the judgment remained unpaid, the plaintiff commenced the present foreclosure action.
The trial court ordered that the husband pay back a loan that the wife made to the husband during the marriage because it constituted a “money judgment,” as opposed to a “family support judgment.”
The parties were married three years and divorced on Oct. 4, 2013. The dissolution court found that alimony and child support were not required, because there were no children, and the marriage was of short duration.
The court ordered defendant husband to pay back $72,172 that the wife had loaned the husband pursuant to promissory notes. The wife filed a certificate of judgment lien against defendant’s property. Defendant did not pay back $72,172, and the wife filed a foreclosure action. Defendant objected that foreclosure of a judgment lien was only allowed for a “money judgment,” and that the dissolution court’s judgment did not qualify. The trial court found that the dissolution court’s order for a sum certain qualified as a “money judgment” that could be enforced in a foreclosure action, pursuant to C.G.S. §52-350f. The trial court issued judgment to plaintiff and ordered a foreclosure by sale.
Defendant appealed. The dissolution court’s judgment did not contain orders for alimony or child support. A “money judgment” was defined as an order for the payment of a sum of money and expressly excluded a family support judgment to pay alimony or child support. The statutes were clear and unambiguous. The trial “court’s order for the defendant to repay a loan made by the plaintiff to the defendant during the marriage,” wrote the Appellate Court, “falls squarely within the definition of a money judgment and outside the definition of a family support judgment.” The judgment of the trial court was affirmed.
For a free consultation, please do not hesitate to call the experienced family law and divorce attorneys at Maya Murphy, P.C. in Westport, CT at 203-221-3100. We may also be reached for inquiries by email at JMaya@mayalaw.com.
Source: Profetto v. Lombardi, 164 Conn. App. 658 (2016).
