Pearlman v. Gervolino, 234 Conn. App. 18 (2025)

Citation: Pearlman v. Gervolino, 234 Conn. App. 18 (2025)
Parent Document: Pearlman v. Gervolino, 234 Conn. App. 18 (2025)
Jurisdiction: Connecticut (state)
Effective Date: 2025-07-29
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10647034/pearlman-v-gervolino/ ↗

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the defendant has had to prosecute his counterclaim
to enforce his claims of statutory violations relative
to his security deposit, an award of attorney’s fees is
appropriate. The defendant may pursue such an award
pursuant to Practice Book § 11-2112 if he so [chooses].’’
(Footnote added.)
On November 13, 2023, the defendant filed a motion
for attorney’s fees pursuant to CUTPA. The defendant
submitted with his motion an affidavit of legal fees
(affidavit), which contained an itemized billing state-
ment of counsel’s services.13 The affidavit indicated that
the defendant’s counsel charged $450 per hour, and he
expended 25.9 hours on the defendant’s case, thereby
incurring $11,655 in fees and $369.51 in costs. On
November 28, 2023, the plaintiff filed an objection to
the defendant’s motion for attorney’s fees, in which she
argued, inter alia: ‘‘CUTPA allows for [the award of]
‘reasonable [attorney’s] fees’ . . . [which] logically
includes only charges associated with [the CUTPA
claim], i.e., the claimed withholding of the banking/
deposit information for the security deposit, but not
for other matters and claims not associated with [the
CUTPA] claim. The fees requested [by the defendant]
include time expended to respond to all claims by the
plaintiff as well as [all] five counterclaims submitted
by the defendant,’’ several of which ‘‘concern other
matters and . . . [on] which the defendant [did not
prevail].’’
A hearing on the defendant’s motion for attorney’s
fees was scheduled for December 18, 2023, and was
12
Practice Book § 11-21 provides in relevant part that ‘‘[m]otions for attor-
ney’s fees shall be filed with the trial court within thirty days following the
date on which the final judgment of the trial court was rendered. . . .’’
13
During the hearing on the motion for attorney’s fees, the defendant’s
counsel indicated to the court that the affidavit of attorney’s fees that he
filed with the court contained ‘‘the exact billing records that [he gave]
to [the defendant] . . . except . . . in the form of an affidavit instead of
an invoice.’’
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