Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., TRUSTEE v.
PAUL C. BISSONNETTE ET AL.
(AC 46628)
Seeley, Westbrook and Prescott, Js.

Syllabus

The defendant property owner appealed from the trial court’s judgment of
strict foreclosure rendered in the plaintiff’s fourth foreclosure action brought
against the defendant. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that the court
improperly rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure because a 2010 loan
modification agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant was not
signed by the plaintiff’s agent and, thus, was invalid and unenforceable. Held:

The defendant’s claim that the trial court improperly rendered a judgment
of strict foreclosure because the 2010 loan modification agreement was
never signed by the plaintiff’s agent as required under the terms of the
original mortgage deed and was therefore invalid and unenforceable failed
because, even if the loan modification was deemed invalid, the plaintiff
nevertheless would have been entitled to a judgment of foreclosure because
the plaintiff produced evidence that the defendant was in default under the
terms of the original note and mortgage.

The trial court properly determined that a judgment of strict foreclosure
was not precluded under the doctrines of res judicata or collateral estoppel
because the record did not support a finding that any material issue or claim
raised and decided on the merits in the third foreclosure action had also been
raised and adjudicated in the present action, which was brought following
the issuance of a new notice of default.

There was adequate evidence presented to support the trial court’s finding
that the defendant was in default on the note and mortgage as modified by
the 2010 loan modification agreement.

This court declined to review the defendant’s inadequately briefed claim
that the plaintiff had failed to provide him with proper notice of default.
Argued October 7, 2024—officially released May 6, 2025

Procedural History

Action to foreclose a mortgage on certain real prop-
erty, and for other relief, brought to the Superior Court
in the judicial district of Waterbury, where the defen-
dant HSBC Mortgage Services, Inc., was defaulted for
failure to appear; thereafter, the case was tried to the
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

court, Cordani, J.; judgment of strict foreclosure, from
which the named defendant appealed to this court.
Affirmed.
Paul C. Bissonnette, self-represented, the appellant,
with whom, on the brief, was Gary L. Seymour (named
defendant).
Jordan W. Schur, for the appellee (plaintiff).

Opinion

WESTBROOK, J. Before us is the fourth mortgage
foreclosure action brought against the defendant Paul
C. Bissonnette1 by the plaintiff, Wells Fargo Bank,
National Association, as Trustee for Asset Backed Secu-
rities Corporation Home Equity Loan Trust, Series
OOMC 2005-HE6, Asset Backed Pass-Through Certifi-
cates, Series OOMC 2005-HE6.2 In the present action,
the trial court rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure,
from which the defendant now appeals. The defendant
claims that the court improperly rendered the judgment
of strict foreclosure because (1) a 2010 loan modifica-
tion agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant,
the default of which in part forms the basis of the
present action, was not signed by the plaintiff’s agent
and, thus, is unenforceable; (2) the defendant should
have prevailed on his special defense of res judicata
and/or issue preclusion based upon the third foreclo-
sure action, which was resolved in favor of the defen-
dant; and (3) the plaintiff failed to establish that the
1
The complaint named HSBC Mortgage Services, Inc., as an additional
defendant. HSBC Mortgage Services, Inc., failed to appear before the trial
court or to participate in the present appeal. Accordingly, all references to
the defendant are to Paul C. Bissonnette only.
2
See Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette, Superior Court, judicial
district of Waterbury, Docket No. CV-XX-XXXXXXX-S; Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
v. Bissonnette, Superior Court, judicial district of Waterbury, Docket No.
CV-XX-XXXXXXX-S; Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette, Superior Court,
judicial district of Waterbury, Docket No. CV-XX-XXXXXXX-S.
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

defendant breached the 2010 loan modification agree-
ment or that it issued the defendant a proper notice
of default. We disagree with the defendant’s claims.
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the court and
remand the case for the setting of new law days.
The following facts, which either were found by the
court or are undisputed in the record,3 and procedural
history are relevant to our review. In May, 2005, the
defendant executed a promissory note in favor of the
plaintiff’s predecessor in interest, Opteum Financial
Services, LLC (Opteum), in the principal amount of
$229,500. As security for the note, the defendant exe-
cuted a mortgage in favor of Opteum on the defendant’s
property located at 152 Summit Road in Prospect. The
mortgage later was assigned to the plaintiff.4
In 2007, the plaintiff commenced the first of three
prior foreclosure actions against the defendant. See
footnote 2 of this opinion. It is unclear from the avail-
able record the precise disposition of the first foreclo-
sure action.5 Nonetheless, in 2009, the defendant
3
It is axiomatic that, in addition to considering the record in the present
action, this court may take judicial notice of the files in the parties’ previous
foreclosure actions. See, e.g., Castro v. Mortgage Lenders Network USA,
Inc., 158 Conn. App. 371, 373 n.3, 119 A.3d 639 (2015).
4
Opteum assigned the mortgage to Option One Mortgage Corporation,
which, in turn, assigned the mortgage to the plaintiff. The court found
that, prior to initiating the present action, the plaintiff also had obtained
possession of the note, which was endorsed in blank.
5
In its decision resolving the plaintiff’s third foreclosure action, the court,
M. Taylor, J., made the following observations in a footnote with respect
to the first foreclosure action: ‘‘After a default judgment of strict foreclosure
was [rendered] on June 19, 2007, th[e] action was stayed in state court by
the defendant’s bankruptcy in federal court. Judgment was subsequently
reentered after bankruptcy on May 12, 2008, with the first law day set for
June 10, 2008. . . . [The] first foreclosure was not opened or withdrawn .
. . .’’ (Emphasis added.) Wells Fargo Bank v. Bissonnette, Docket No. CV-
XX-XXXXXXX-S, 2018 WL 3827060, *1 n.3 (Conn. Super. July 20, 2018). The
record is silent regarding why the plaintiff did not act to enforce that prior
judgment rather than pursuing subsequent actions against the defendant;
however, neither party has argued that the earlier judgment should be consid-
ered in resolving the present appeal.
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entered into the first of several loan modification agree-
ments with the plaintiff (2009 modification).6 By August,
2010, however, the defendant was again in default on
his monthly mortgage payment obligation and, at that
time, entered into a second loan modification agree-
ment with the plaintiff (2010 modification). Pursuant
to explicit provisions of both loan modification agree-
ments, all terms of the original note and mortgage
remained in effect unless expressly modified by the
loan modification agreement.
Beginning in December, 2010, the defendant again
stopped making required monthly mortgage payments,
and, in 2011, the plaintiff filed its second foreclosure
action. The plaintiff withdrew this second foreclosure
action on June 5, 2012, after the parties reached a settle-
ment, having purportedly entered into a third loan modi-
fication agreement (2012 modification).
In August, 2014, the plaintiff filed its third foreclosure
action. The plaintiff alleged in the operative amended
complaint that the defendant was in default on the note,
the mortgage, and the 2012 modification and that the
plaintiff ‘‘has elected to accelerate the balance due on
said note, mortgage and 2012 modification, to declare
said note, mortgage and 2012 modification to be due
in full and to foreclose the mortgage and 2012 modifica-
tion.’’7 The defendant raised a number of special
defenses, including that the 2012 modification was not
signed by the plaintiff but unilaterally by the defendant,
and the parties disagreed as to whether a unilaterally
signed modification is legally sufficient.
6
Each loan modification agreement effectively cured any existing default
by recapitalizing the defendant’s outstanding delinquent payments and
adjusting future payment terms.
7
The original complaint in the third foreclosure action was amended to
include additional facts, including the execution of the 2009 modification.
The plaintiff argued that the amendments were needed to ‘‘provide a more
complete recitation of the facts of this case.’’ There was no mention of the
2010 modification in the amended complaint.
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On July 20, 2018, in the third foreclosure action, the
court, M. Taylor, J., issued a memorandum of decision
in which it found that, although the defendant had
signed the 2012 modification, he had conditioned his
acceptance of the agreement by contemporaneously
delivering to the plaintiff a signed counteroffer to which
the plaintiff never responded. Accordingly, the court
concluded that ‘‘no valid modification was entered into
by the parties in 2012, as alleged, upon which the defen-
dant could be found in default. Therefore, the foreclo-
sure is denied.’’8
In March, 2019, the plaintiff commenced this fourth
foreclosure action against the defendant. The complaint
alleged that the original 2005 note and mortgage had
been modified by loan modification agreements in 2009
and 2010 and that the ‘‘note and mortgage are now in
default by virtue of nonpayment of the monthly install-
ments of principal and interest due on December 1,
2010, and each and every month thereafter . . . .’’ The
complaint did not contain any allegations regarding the
2012 modification, which the prior court had found to
be invalid, but instead relied on allegations that the
defendant was in default on the original note and mort-
gage as modified in 2009 and 2010. The plaintiff filed
a motion seeking a judgment of strict foreclosure.
The defendant filed an answer and special defenses
in which he admitted ownership of the property and
the validity of the original note and mortgage but denied
or left the plaintiff to its proof on all other allegations.
8
In reaching this conclusion, the court also stated that, ‘‘[a]lthough the
2009 modification was [pleaded] in the amended complaint, there is no
allegation or evidence presented of a default on the [2009 modification].
Without a default of the operative mortgage agreement, the court concludes
[that] there is no prerequisite proven to proceed to foreclosure under the
facts and pleadings of this case.’’ The plaintiff did not file an appeal challeng-
ing the judgment of the court, and the propriety of the July 20, 2018 decision,
therefore, is not before us in the present appeal.
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By way of special defense, he asserted res judicata
based on the failed third foreclosure action; issue pre-
clusion based on the plaintiff’s failure to have sought
enforcement of the 2010 modification in the third fore-
closure action, which the plaintiff now relied upon in
support of the present action; and that the plaintiff had
not properly executed either the 2009 modification or
the 2010 modification, rendering them invalid and unen-
forceable. The court, Agati, J., denied both parties’
motions for summary judgment, concluding that there
were issues of fact and credibility that needed to be
resolved by a trier of fact.
The court, Cordani, J., conducted a trial on April
26, 2023. On June 5, 2023, it issued a memorandum of
decision rendering a judgment of strict foreclosure in
favor of the plaintiff. The court found on the basis of
the evidence produced at trial that the plaintiff was the
owner and holder of the note and associated mortgage;
the defendant breached the terms of the note and mort-
gage ‘‘in both the original form and the [modified] form’’;
the plaintiff satisfied all conditions precedent to bring-
ing the present action; and the defendant failed to prove
any of his special defenses.9
With respect to the defendant’s special defenses, the
court rejected the defendant’s assertion that either res
judicata or issue preclusion arising from the failed third
foreclosure action are applicable. As explained by the
court, ‘‘[t]he claim, and only issue decided, in the [third
foreclosure action] was whether the defendant breached,
at that time, [the 2012 modification]. Accordingly, the
claim made in this matter, and the claim made and
decided in the [third foreclosure action], are different
and distinct.’’ The court noted that the defendant failed
9
The court noted that the defendant did not testify at trial and did not
present any case of his own other than to enter exhibits by stipulation of
the parties.
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to direct the court to any ‘‘specific issue that was
decided in the [third foreclosure action] that is material
to a decision in this action, and the court has found no
such issue.’’ The court further explained that ‘‘[t]he fact
that a representative of the plaintiff’s predecessor may
have testified in the [third foreclosure action] in a man-
ner that is inconsistent with the claims here may be
evidence in this matter but does not itself give rise
to res judicata or issue preclusion. No issue or claim
decided in the [third foreclosure action] is presented
in this matter or necessary to a decision in this matter.
The court notes that the defendant in this matter has
admitted entering into the note and mortgage as origi-
nally constituted in 2005. The claim and issue presented
in this matter is whether or not the defendant breached
the note and mortgage as modified by amendments
alleged to have been made in 2009 and 2010. The forego-
ing issue and claim was not presented . . . or decided
[in the third foreclosure action].’’ (Footnotes omitted.)
With respect to the defendant’s third special defense,
in which the defendant asserted that the 2009 modifica-
tion and the 2010 modification were invalid and unen-
forceable because they were not signed by both parties,
the court found ‘‘that the 2009 and 2010 loan modifica-
tion agreements are enforceable agreements. [Although]
it is true that the plaintiff’s agent did not sign these
modification agreements on the signature page, each
agreement was offered by the plaintiff and accepted by
the defendant when the defendant signed each of them.
Further, the plaintiff, upon receiving the defendant’s
signature on both of these loan modification agree-
ments, implemented them in accordance with their
terms by adjusting the plaintiff’s accounting and finan-
cial expectations accordingly.’’ (Footnotes omitted.)
The court maintained that, even if it accepted for argu-
ment’s sake that the 2009 modification and the 2010
modification were not enforceable as the defendant
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argued, ‘‘the defendant still defaulted on the [original]
note and mortgage. If the 2009 and 2010 loan modifica-
tion agreements did not come into being and are not
enforceable, the note and mortgage exist today and are
enforceable in accordance with their original terms. The
note in its original, unamended form required monthly
payments on the first of each month into 2035. The
plaintiff admitted entering into the [original] note and
mortgage. The evidence establishes that the defendant
has made no payments on the note since November 22,
2010. Accordingly, even under the [defendant’s] alleged
facts, he has defaulted. The defendant’s arguments are
mistaken in his attempted focus on whether he
defaulted on the [2010 modification], which he con-
tended was unenforceable. . . . [O]ne does not breach
a loan modification agreement, but instead breaches
the original note and mortgage as modified by the loan
modification agreement. Accordingly, if the modifica-
tion does not exist, then the focus shifts to an analysis
of the defendant’s actions in relation to the conceded
original note and mortgage. In this matter, filed in 2019,
the defendant has made no payments since 2010 and
accordingly has breached the terms of the note and
mortgage in both the original form and the amended
form.’’10

The court found that the total amount of the debt
owed by the defendant under the terms of the note
was $581,843.57 and that the fair market value of the
property, as stipulated by the parties, was $288,000.
10
The court, ‘‘[i]n considering the equity of the matter,’’ further stated as
follows: ‘‘This is the fourth litigation over the note and mortgage. The court
finds that equity weighs heavily in favor of the plaintiff. The court notes
that the defendant received his loan and admittedly entered into the note
and mortgage in 2005, then repeatedly defaulted between 2007 and 2010,
and made his last payment of any kind on the note in 2010. The fact that
this matter has remained unresolved for this extended period of time only
reinforces the need for prompt justice at this point.’’
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Given the lack of equity in the property, the court ren-
dered a judgment of strict foreclosure in favor of the
plaintiff and set law days to commence on July 31, 2023.
This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth
as necessary.

We begin with guiding legal principles, including the
applicable standard of review. A court properly may
find a defendant liable in a foreclosure action if the
evidence establishes an undisputed prima facie case
and the defendant fails to assert any legally sufficient
special defense. See GMAC Mortgage, LLC v. Ford, 144
Conn. App. 165, 176, 73 A.3d 742 (2013). ‘‘[T]o establish
a prima facie case in a mortgage foreclosure action, the
plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence
that it is the owner of the note and mortgage, that the
defendant mortgagor has defaulted on the note and that
any conditions precedent to foreclosure, as established
by the note and mortgage, have been satisfied.’’ Id.
‘‘An action to foreclose on a mortgage is an equitable
proceeding, and the trial court enjoys broad discretion
in considering whether to grant a mortgagee the remedy
of foreclosure for the default of a mortgage loan. . . .
We thus ordinarily review a trial court’s decision to
grant foreclosure for an abuse of discretion. . . . [If],
however, the claims on appeal are not targeted at the
trial court’s exercise of discretion, but at a subsidiary
legal conclusion, our review is plenary.’’ (Citations omit-
ted.) ARS Investors II 2012-1 HVB, LLC v. Crystal,
LLC, 324 Conn. 680, 685, 154 A.3d 518 (2017). Likewise,
to the extent that our review requires us to construe the
note and mortgage, or a subsequent loan modification
agreement, such review also is plenary. See Jancewicz
v. 1721, LLC, 134 Conn. App. 394, 397–98, 39 A.3d 782,
cert. denied, 305 Conn. 907, 44 A.3d 183 (2012). With
these principles in mind, we turn to the defendant’s
claims.
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

I
The defendant first claims that the court improperly
rendered the judgment of strict foreclosure because the
2010 modification, on which the foreclosure action was
in part based, was never signed by the plaintiff’s agent
as required under the terms of the original mortgage
deed and, accordingly, was invalid and unenforceable.
We reject the defendant’s claim.
The following additional facts are relevant to our
discussion of this claim. During the foreclosure trial, the
plaintiff presented testimony from Kawanna McDowell,
who was a senior loan analyst for the plaintiff’s loan
servicing company and who had reviewed and was
familiar with the business records relevant to the loan
at issue, which included the original note and mortgage
and the subsequent loan modification agreements.
McDowell testified that the 2010 modification was sent
to the defendant, who signed and returned it. The terms
of the 2010 modification were then implemented by the
loan servicer, as evidenced by the monthly mortgage
statements beginning in October, 2010, which reflected
the new payment terms. The defendant made payments
pursuant to the terms of the 2010 modification for the
months of October and November, 2010. He subse-
quently stopped making payments on his obligation
under the note and mortgage beginning in December,
2010.
Turning to the defendant’s claim, it is undisputed that
the original mortgage deed provides in relevant part
that ‘‘[t]his Security Instrument may be modified or
amended only by an agreement in writing signed by
Borrower and Lender.’’ (Emphasis added.) It is further
undisputed that, although both the 2009 modification
and the 2010 modification were signed by the defendant
as the borrower, neither one was signed by the loan
servicer as the agent for the plaintiff. Although both
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

loan modification agreements contained a signature line
for the loan servicer, McDowell testified at trial that it
was the usual practice of the loan servicer simply to
accept and act on a loan modification once the agree-
ment had been signed by the borrower.
Generally, ‘‘parties may become bound by the terms
of a contract, even though they do not sign it, where
their assent or a meeting of the minds is otherwise
indicated, such as by accepting and acting upon the
contract, or by ratifying the contract, or by the accep-
tance by one of the performance by the other.’’ (Foot-
notes omitted.) 17A Am. Jur. 2d 184, Contracts § 172
(2023); see also Schwarzschild v. Martin, 191 Conn.
316, 321–22, 464 A.2d 774 (1983) (‘‘parties may become
bound by the terms of a contract, even though they do
not sign it, where their assent is otherwise indicated,
such as by the acceptance of benefits under the con-
tract’’ (internal quotation marks omitted)); Original
Grasso Construction Co. v. Shepherd, 70 Conn. App.
404, 411, 799 A.2d 1083 (‘‘[p]arties are bound to the
terms of a contract even though it is not signed if their
assent is otherwise indicated’’ (internal quotation marks
omitted)), cert. denied, 261 Conn. 932, 806 A.2d 1065
(2002). Nevertheless, parties may make the signing of
a contract a condition precedent to its enforcement,
meaning that, in the absence of a signature, the contract
will be deemed unenforceable. See 17A Am. Jur. 2d,
supra, § 174, p. 186.
In the present case, it is unnecessary for us to resolve
whether the defendant’s unilateral execution and accep-
tance of the loan modification agreements and subse-
quent performance and/or acceptance of the benefits
of those agreements qualified as a waiver or equitable
estoppel with respect to the signature requirement in
the original mortgage deed. Although the trial court
determined that the 2009 modification and the 2010
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

modification were enforceable, it also alternatively con-
cluded that, even if they were not, the defendant would
remain bound by the terms of the original note and
mortgage, which required monthly payments on his
loan. The undisputed evidence presented at trial
showed that he had stopped making any payments
beginning in December, 2010, and, thus, that he was in
default on the original note and mortgage.
In his principal appellate brief, the defendant does
not address the aspect of the court’s ruling concerning
the original note and mortgage or provide any legal
analysis as to why, if we agreed with him that the 2009
modification and the 2010 modification were unenforce-
able, he could not be found in default under the terms
of the original note and mortgage. We recognize that
the court’s conclusion that the defendant was in default
of the 2009 modification and the 2010 modification,
which were enforceable, or, in the alternative, that the
defendant was in default of the original loan agreement,
creates a significant question regarding the proper cal-
culation of the amount of the debt owed by the defen-
dant. An accurate calculation of the total debt owed
depends, in large part, on whether the applicable terms
of the loan are those contained in the original note
or in a subsequent modification of the original terms
because those agreements contain different interest
rates and other material terms. Importantly, however,
the defendant has not challenged the court’s judgment
with respect to its calculation of the amount of the
debt, and, therefore, this issue is not properly before
us, and we do not consider it in resolving the defen-
dant’s claim.
In sum, we agree with the court that, even if the loan
modifications are deemed invalid, the plaintiff neverthe-
less would have been entitled to a judgment of foreclo-
sure because the plaintiff produced evidence that the
defendant was in default under the terms of the original
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

note and mortgage. Accordingly, the defendant’s first
claim fails.
II
The defendant, relying on the third foreclosure action
that was resolved in his favor, next claims that the
doctrines of res judicata and/or issue preclusion barred
the court from rendering a judgment of strict foreclo-
sure in the present action. We reject this claim for the
same reasons provided by the trial court.
‘‘Claim preclusion (res judicata) and issue preclusion
(collateral estoppel) have been described as related
ideas on a continuum. [C]laim preclusion prevents a
litigant from reasserting a claim that has already been
decided on the merits. . . . [I]ssue preclusion . . .
prevents a party from relitigating an issue that has been
determined in a prior suit. . . . The doctrines of res
judicata and collateral estoppel protect the finality of
judicial determinations, conserve the time of the court,
and prevent wasteful relitigation.’’ (Internal quotation
marks omitted.) Wells Fargo Bank, National Assn. v.
Doreus, 218 Conn. App. 77, 83, 290 A.3d 921, cert.
denied, 347 Conn. 904, 297 A.3d 198 (2023).
‘‘In order for res judicata to apply, four elements
must be met: (1) the [prior] judgment must have been
rendered on the merits by a court of competent jurisdic-
tion; (2) the parties to the prior and subsequent actions
must be the same or in privity; (3) there must have
been an adequate opportunity [in the prior action] to
litigate the [omitted claim] fully; and (4) the same under-
lying claim must be at issue.’’ (Internal quotation marks
omitted.) Solon v. Slater, 345 Conn. 794, 825, 287 A.3d
574 (2023). ‘‘Unlike the doctrine of res judicata . . .
the doctrine of collateral estoppel does not depend on
the plaintiff’s ability to assert an identical claim in the
prior proceeding—it depends, instead, on the actual
resolution of an identical issue in the prior proceeding
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

following a full and fair opportunity for litigation.’’ (Cita-
tion omitted; emphasis omitted.) Id., 823–24.
‘‘The doctrine of res judicata should be applied as
necessary to promote its underlying purposes. These
purposes are generally identified as being (1) to pro-
mote judicial economy by minimizing repetitive litiga-
tion; (2) to prevent inconsistent judgments which
undermine the integrity of the judicial system; and (3)
to provide repose by preventing a person from being
harassed by vexatious litigation. . . . But by the same
token, the internal needs of the judicial system do not
outweigh its essential function in providing litigants
a legal forum to redress their grievances.’’ (Citations
omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Rosenfield
v. Cymbala, 43 Conn. App. 83, 87–88, 681 A.2d 999
(1996). Whether the doctrines of res judicata and collat-
eral estoppel apply to the facts of this case presents a
question of law over which our review is plenary. See
Solon v. Slater, supra, 345 Conn. 809.
Turning to the defendant’s claim, we are not per-
suaded that res judicata bars the judgment in the pres-
ent action because the third foreclosure action relied
on by the defendant in support of this claim was not
resolved on the merits of whether the defendant was
in default on his original loan obligations but, rather,
solely on the issue of the enforceability of the 2012
modification. The complaint in the present action
alleges that the defendant breached the original note
and mortgage as modified by amendments in 2009 and
2010. In the third foreclosure action, the court did not
consider or address the merits of whether the defendant
had defaulted or breached the terms of the original note
and mortgage. Rather, the only issue that the court
decided, and which it found fully dispositive of the
matter before it, was whether the defendant had entered
into the 2012 modification.
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Moreover, the present action to foreclose was not
brought on the basis of the same notice of default under-
lying the third foreclosure action. The defendant contin-
ued to default on his mortgage obligations after the
third foreclosure action was resolved and, therefore,
the present action was brought on the basis of the
defendant’s continued and subsequent default of his
mortgage obligations. Foreclosure is an equitable rem-
edy and, accordingly, some tension exists between a
court’s duty to weigh the equities involved and its appli-
cation of res judicata, a legal doctrine. We find persua-
sive the statement of the Supreme Court of Florida that
the ‘‘ends of justice require that the doctrine of res
judicata not be applied so strictly so as to prevent mort-
gagees from being able to challenge multiple defaults
on a mortgage.’’ Singleton v. Greymar Associates, 882
So. 2d 1004, 1008 (Fla. 2004); see id. (‘‘[w]e can find
no valid basis for barring mortgagees from challenging
subsequent defaults on a mortgage and note solely
because they did not prevail in a previous attempted
foreclosure based upon a separate alleged default’’);
see also Cenlar FSB v. Malenfant, 203 Vt. 23, 43, 151
A.3d 778 (2016) (holding that new notice of default was
required before lender could pursue second foreclosure
action on note).
Likewise, we reject that aspect of the defendant’s
claim arguing that the judgment should be barred by
collateral estoppel. The primary contention raised by
the defendant in support of this claim is that, during
the trial of the third foreclosure action, the loan servic-
ing agent through whom the plaintiff’s documentary
evidence was presented never testified regarding the
existence of the 2010 modification, which stands in
conflict with the testimony and documentary evidence
provided by McDowell in the present action. As the
trial court explained, however, the fact that a witness
in a prior action testifies in a manner that is inconsistent
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with testimony or other evidence presented in a later
action ‘‘may be evidence in this matter but does not
itself give rise to . . . issue preclusion.’’ (Footnote
omitted.) The court in the third foreclosure action made
no findings regarding the 2010 modification that could
be given preclusive effect in the present action because
the court in that action only made findings concerning
the 2012 modification.
The present action and the third foreclosure action
are sufficiently different and distinct as not to implicate
either claim or issue preclusion. The record does not
support a finding that any material issue or claim raised
and decided on the merits in the third foreclosure action
has also been raised and adjudicated in the present
matter, which was brought following the issuance of a
new notice of default. Accordingly, on the basis of our
plenary review of the defendant’s claim, we conclude
that the court correctly determined that a judgment of
strict foreclosure was not precluded under the doc-
trines of res judicata or collateral estoppel.
III
Finally, the defendant claims that the court improp-
erly rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure because
the plaintiff failed ‘‘to provide evidence of a breach of
the alleged [2010 modification] and proper notice of
default as required to [establish a prima] facie case.’’
We disagree that there was inadequate evidence of a
breach necessary to support a judgment of strict fore-
closure and decline to review the remainder of the
defendant’s claim because it is inadequately briefed.
As previously stated, to establish a prima facie case
in a mortgage foreclosure action, the plaintiff bears the
burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
that (1) it is the owner of the note and mortgage, (2)
the defendant has defaulted on the note at issue, and
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

(3) it has satisfied any conditions precedent to foreclo-
sure as set forth in the note and mortgage. See GMAC
Mortgage, LLC v. Ford, supra, 144 Conn. App. 176. Thus,
for example, if the note and mortgage require the plain-
tiff to provide the defendant with notice of a default,
then proper notice is a condition precedent to an action
for foreclosure. See Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Fitz-
patrick, 190 Conn. App. 231, 239, 210 A.3d 88, cert.
denied, 332 Conn. 912, 209 A.3d 1232 (2019). ‘‘[W]hether
the plaintiff has established a prima facie case [in a
foreclosure action] is a question of law, over which our
review is plenary.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
Financial Freedom Acquisition, LLC v. Griffin, 176
Conn. App. 314, 323, 170 A.3d 41, cert. denied, 327 Conn.
931, 171 A.3d 454 (2017).
In support of this claim, the defendant does not dis-
pute that the plaintiff was the owner of the note and
mortgage. The plaintiff presented the original note,
endorsed in blank, and entered into evidence a series of
assignments showing that the plaintiff was the current
mortgage holder. The defendant called no witnesses
and presented no evidence demonstrating that someone
other than the plaintiff was the owner of the note and
mortgage.
Instead, the defendant first argues that the plaintiff
failed to present evidence establishing that he was in
default on the note and mortgage as modified by the
2010 modification. To the contrary, our review of the
record shows that there was ample evidence presented
from which the court properly determined that the
defendant was in default on the note, both in its original
form and as amended. McDowell’s testimony and the
business records of the loan servicer, which were
entered into evidence without objection, established
that the defendant had not made any payments toward
his loan obligation since November, 2010, and, thus,
clearly was in default of his obligation to make monthly
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Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Bissonnette

mortgage payments. Although the amount of the
required payments arguably may have depended upon
whether the operative terms were those in the original
note or as modified by later agreement, there is no
dispute that he had a duty to make monthly payments
and his undisputed failure to do so was a default on
the note, both in its original form and as modified.
Finally, the defendant suggests that the plaintiff failed
to provide him with proper notice of the default. We
decline to address this aspect of the defendant’s claim
because it is not adequately briefed.
‘‘We repeatedly have stated that [w]e are not required
to review issues that have been improperly presented
to this court through an inadequate brief. . . . Analy-
sis, rather than mere abstract assertion, is required in
order to avoid abandoning an issue by failure to brief
the issue properly. . . . [When] a claim is asserted in
the statement of issues but thereafter receives only
cursory attention in the brief without substantive dis-
cussion or citation of authorities, it is deemed to be
abandoned. . . . For a reviewing court to judiciously
and efficiently . . . consider claims of error raised on
appeal . . . the parties must clearly and fully set forth
their arguments in their briefs. . . . In addition, brief-
ing is inadequate when it is not only short, but confus-
ing, repetitive, and disorganized.’’ (Internal quotation
marks omitted.) Homebridge Financial Services, Inc.
v. Jakubiec, 223 Conn. App. 517, 542–43, 309 A.3d 1223
(declining to address merits of claim for which discus-
sion in brief consisted of one paragraph and one legal
citation), cert. denied, 349 Conn. 909, 314 A.3d 602
(2024).
The totality of the defendant’s discussion in his princi-
pal brief with respect to the alleged lack of proper
notice of default is contained in one short paragraph
that is devoid of any legal citations or analysis. The
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entirety of the defendant’s argument is as follows: ‘‘[A]t
trial, [McDowell] could not link the notice of default
. . . to the alleged [2010 modification] . . . . In fact,
she testified that she did not know what instrument the
notice of default was meant to pertain to. . . . It is
worth noting the default notice dated December 11,
2018, relied upon by the plaintiff for default of the
alleged 2010 modification was issued over eight years
after the occurrence of the alleged default and well
after the previous foreclosure trial of May, 2018, where,
again, it failed to even mention an alleged [2010 modifi-
cation].’’ (Citations omitted.) The defendant does not
provide any legal analysis regarding the significance of
these factual assertions to his claim that he was not
provided a proper notice of default. Given the inade-
quacy of the brief concerning the issue of notice, we
deem this aspect of the defendant’s claim abandoned.
The judgment is affirmed and the case is remanded
for the sole purpose of setting new law days.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.