Connecticut Supreme Court reverses custody award over judicial notice

The Connecticut Supreme Court reversed a custody award after the trial court relied on a disputed fact from an unrelated custody proceeding without giving the parties notice and an opportunity to be heard. In Hamilton v. Hamilton, officially released May 19, 2026, the court remanded for further proceedings and affirmed the trial court's decision in all other respects.

The trial judge had referred to the mother's prior custody proceeding involving another child and inferred why the other child's father had surrendered his parental rights. The Supreme Court said that alleged motivation was a fact the mother might have disputed or explained. The error was harmful because the custody decision relied significantly on findings informed by the improperly noticed fact.

The court also rejected the mother's challenge to the timing of the modification decision. It held that the motion was a short-calendar matter governed by Practice Book section 11-19, even though the court had heard evidence, and that the mother waived her timeliness challenge by failing to make a timely reassignment motion. The court declined to review a separate claim concerning two unresolved contempt motions.

The opinion noted that a newer family-motion procedure took effect after the proceedings at issue and did not affect the court's resolution of this appeal. Its judicial-notice holding concerns the opportunity to contest the particular fact; the court did not hold that a trial court can never notice a file in another case.