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JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A. v. GEORGE N.
GEORGITSEAS, ET AL.
(AC 35559)
Bear, Sheldon and Schaller, Js.
Argued March 3—officially released April 29, 2014
(Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of
Stamford-Norwalk, Mintz, J.)
Genevieve P. Salvatore, for the appellant (named
defendant).
Laura Pascale Zaino, with whom, on the brief, was
Brian D. Rich, for the appellee (plaintiff).
Opinion
PER CURIAM. The defendant George N. Georgitseas1
appeals from the judgment of strict foreclosure ren-
dered by the trial court in favor of the plaintiff, JPMor-
gan Chase Bank, N.A. On appeal, the defendant makes
three claims pertaining to the court’s reliance on a
‘‘drive-by’’ or ‘‘exterior-only’’ appraisal dated more than
120 days before the date of the judgment in its calcula-
tion of the subject property’s fair market value. We
conclude that the defendant has failed to preserve any
of his claims for appellate review, and we accordingly
affirm the judgment of the trial court.
‘‘Practice Book § 60-5 provides in relevant part that
[t]he court shall not be bound to consider a claim unless
it was distinctly raised at the trial or arose subsequent
to the trial. The court may in the interests of justice
notice plain error not brought to the attention of the trial
court. . . . Indeed, it is the appellant’s responsibility to
present a claim clearly to the trial court so that the trial
court may consider it and, if it is meritorious, take
appropriate action. That is the basis for the requirement
that ordinarily [the appellant] must raise in the trial
court the issues that he intends to raise on appeal. . . .
For us [t]o review [a] claim, which has been articulated
for the first time on appeal and not before the trial
court, would result in a trial by ambuscade of the trial
judge. . . . We have repeatedly indicated our disfavor
with the failure, whether because of a mistake of law,
inattention or design, to object to errors occurring in
the course of a trial until it is too late for them to be
corrected, and thereafter, if the outcome of the trial
proves unsatisfactory, with the assignment of such
errors as grounds of appeal.’’ (Internal quotation marks
omitted.) Sturgeon v. Sturgeon, 114 Conn. App. 682,
693, 971 A.2d 691, cert. denied, 293 Conn. 903, 975 A.2d
1278 (2009).
We carefully have reviewed the trial court file, includ-
ing but not limited to the transcripts of the relevant
proceedings, and we cannot find any notice to and
opportunity for review by the trial court of any of the
defendant’s three claims raised in this appeal. During
oral argument before this court, we asked the defendant
on what basis we could hear these claims for the first
time on appeal. The defendant did not assert that he
had properly preserved the claims for appellate review;
he, instead, argued that the state of the law and the
trial court’s alleged failure to perform its gatekeeping
function should compel this court to review his claims,
regardless of whether they properly were preserved. In
light of our longstanding precedent requiring claims to
be made initially in the trial court, and the defendant’s
failure to provide any valid explanation for his failure
to do so in this case, we have no alternative except to
affirm the judgment.
The judgment is affirmed and the case is remanded
for the purpose of setting a new law day.
1
RBS Citizens, N.A., also was named as a defendant but is not involved
in this appeal. We therefore refer in this opinion to George N. Georgitseas
as the defendant.