The owners of a cluster of condominiums on Harrison Avenue have until Friday to work out an internal dispute that includes claims of unlawful occupancy by one of them of a unit there, court documents show.
Through a limited liability company for which they serve as managing partners, Sandra and Jerry Effren, together with Donald Corbo, own three two-family condos at the bottom of Harrison Avenue, according to records on file with the Connecticut Secretary of the State.
In December, according to a complaint filed in state Superior Court on behalf of Sandra Effren, Corbo “took exclusive possession” of the premises “to the exclusion and detriment of the Plaintiff, including, without limitation, changing the locks to the front door and changing the key pad lock of the garage, without ever having any right or privilege to occupy the Premises.”
The trio’s company, Harrison Avenue Development LLC, owns 134, 138 and 142 Harrison Ave., tax records show. It isn’t clear from the legal filings which unit Corbo is said to have moved into.
The plaintiffs asked Corbo to “surrender possession” there, but he remained, according to an amended complaint filed in March on behalf of the ownership LLC and Sandra Effren by Stamford-based Law Offices of David W. Rubin.
In a separate lawsuit, a complaint filed on Effren’s behalf in December said that “the working relationship between the managers of the company … has deteriorated over the course of recent months to the point where they are not able to agree and act together in order to take any action on behalf of the Company, as they cannot and do not communicate effectively, or at all, with each other about the direction of the business of the Company.”
“They do not share the same vision for the operation and development of the business of the Company,” according to the complaint. “The Defendant has taken unlawful possession of certain of the Company’s real property to the exclusion and detriment of the Company, resulting in the service of a Notice to Quit and the commencement of a Summary Process action by the Company seeking possession.”
It continued: “The Defendant has taken certain actions to interfere with the Company’s financing in an ostensible attempt to improperly leverage his position in the Company; and they have considered, but have been unable to reach an agreement, by which one of them would buy out the interest of the other in the Company.”
Corbo, in an answer and counterclaim filed on his behalf by Robinson + Cole in Hartford, denied that he had taken unlawful possession of the Harrison Avenue dwelling and said that Sandra and Jerry Effren have “withheld funding” to the LLC, requiring him “to use his personal funds in the ordinary course of his activities” as a manager in the company. Further, according to the counterclaim, the Effrens’ “mismanagement, neglect and failure to maintain” the Harrison Avenue property “has exposed” the LLC “to a potential foreclosure on the mortgage of the properties.”
A status conference is scheduled for Aug. 8 on the second lawsuit, Connecticut Judicial Branch records show.
On the housing matter, Judge Eddie Rodriguez on July 20 granted a motion to stay until Friday, as the parties work toward a settlement.
Tax records show that the LLC acquired the condos last August for a combined $4.2 million. In the months immediately following, the town granted permits for work at them totaling an estimated $150,000.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether settling the housing matter would also affect the civil complaint. Attorneys for the parties involved could not immediately be reached.