Nahlawi v. Nahlawi

189 Conn.App. 825

209 A.3d 723

Rania NAHLAWI

v.Mohamad NAHLAWI

AC 40793

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued March 4, 2019

Officially released May 14, 2019

Roy W. Moss, Norwalk, for the appellant (defendant).

George J. Markley, Fairfield, for the appellee (plaintiff).

Lavine, Bright and Bear, Js.

BEAR, J.

The defendant, Mohamad Nahlawi, appeals from the judgment of the trial court dissolving his marriage to the plaintiff, Rania Nahlawi. On appeal, the defendant claims that the court erred in (1) awarding periodic alimony in the absence of any finding as to the actual amount of the parties' incomes, expenses and liabilities, or the value of their respective assets, (2) ordering the transfer of real property without any finding as to the actual value thereof, and (3) entering a final child custody and visitation order that referenced a pendente lite parenting plan stipulation that had been superseded by a subsequent pendente lite parenting plan stipulation that the parties and the court had intended would become the final order. The plaintiff concedes that the court's child custody and visitation order should have referred to the February 28, 2017 parenting plan stipulation rather than the December 8, 2016 stipulation that was referenced in the judgment. We reverse the judgment of the court with respect to the child custody and visitation order. We affirm the judgment in all other respects.

The defendant, in his brief before this court, presents no facts and virtually no legal analysis in support of his first two claims. With respect to the alimony claim, the defendant's entire analysis and argument is that "[t]he court made no findings as to the amount of income or value of the parties' assets. It should be noted [that] the court did not find any concealment or misrepresentation of income, assets, or other financial circumstances on the part of the defendant. The court has broad discretion only so long as it considers all relevant statutory criteria .... Under the foregoing circumstances, the award of periodic alimony was unsupported by the record, failed to adhere to the above comprehensive statutory criteria [in General Statutes § 46b-82 ], and therefore constituted an abuse of discretion."

¹ (Citation omitted.) His analysis of his real property claim is similarly limited.

It is well established that "[w]e are not required to review issues that have been improperly presented to this court through an inadequate brief. ... Analysis, rather than mere abstract assertion, is required in order to avoid abandoning an issue by failure to brief the issue properly. ... [F]or this court judiciously and efficiently to consider claims of error raised on appeal ... the parties must clearly and fully set forth their arguments in their briefs. ... The parties may not merely cite a legal principle without analyzing the relationship between the facts of the case and the law cited." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Buhl , 321 Conn. 688, 724, 138 A.3d 868 (2016) ; see also Estate of Rock v. University of Connecticut , 323 Conn. 26, 33, 144 A.3d 420 (2016) ("[c]laims are inadequately briefed when they ... consist of conclusory assertions ... with no mention of...