*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion. All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative. The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** WIOLETTA KRAHEL v. MARIUSZ CZOCH (AC 40521) DiPentima, C. J., and Keller and Elgo, Js. Syllabus The defendant appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court dissolving his marriage to the plaintiff and making certain financial orders. During the dissolution proceedings, the defendant failed to com- ply with a discovery order that sought financial documents relating to his personal finances and construction business for several years. Thereafter, the trial court granted the plaintiff’s motion to preclude the defendant from providing evidence in the form of documents and records relating to the discovery order. During trial, the defendant attempted to provide testimony related to the financial matters contained in the preclusion order, but the court sustained the plaintiff’s objections thereto, effectively entering a sanction against the defendant. As part of the dissolution judgment, the court had ordered the parties to submit to binding arbitration if they were unable to divide their personal prop- erty by agreement. Subsequently, after trial, the court granted the plain- tiff’s motion for an order to effectuate the judgment and ordered the parties to submit to mediation, in lieu of arbitration, if they could not reach an agreement regarding the division of personal property. On appeal to this court, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that the trial court improperly sanctioned him for violating the discovery order, and improperly entered orders for arbitration and mediation regarding the parties’ personal property. Held: 1. The trial court properly entered an order of sanctions for the defendant’s violation of the discovery order: that court’s finding that the defendant violated the discovery order was not clearly erroneous, as the defendant effectively conceded that the discovery order was reasonably clear, it was undisputed that he failed to produce several documents by the deadline set forth in the order, and the defendant’s counsel admitted at trial that it was the defendant’s duty to provide ...
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals