Opinion
The issue in this appeal is whether General Statutes §§ 49-15 and 49-11 deprive the Superior *253Court of jurisdiction to open a foreclosure judgment in order to correct the inadvertent omission of a parcel of the mortgaged property from the judgment. The plaintiff, the New Milford Savings Bank (bank), brought an uncontested action against the defendants Maurice and Maria Jajer,2 for foreclosure of a mortgage that they had executed as security for a $270,000 loan. Although the mortgage conveyance included three parcels of land, two vacant parcels and a third parcel containing the defendants’ residence, the bank mistakenly had referred only to a description of the two vacant parcels in its foreclosure complaint and lis pendens.3 On August 22,1994, the trial court, Pickett, J., rendered a judgment of strict foreclosure against only the two parcels described in the bank’s complaint. The court found the mortgage debt to be $308,181.11 and the value of the property to be $170,000 based on an appraisal of all three parcels. In the absence of redemption of the property by the defendants or any other lien holder, title vested absolutely in the bank with the passage of the last law days on September 26, 1994.
Soon thereafter, the bank discovered its mistake in the course of federal bankruptcy proceedings initiated *254by the defendants’ prayer for relief under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. 11 U.S.C. § 362. In order to enforce its state court judgment, the bank moved the United States Bankruptcy Court, Krechevsky, J., to lift the automatic stay provision of the Bankruptcy Code. Relying on the defendants’ concession that the bank’s mortgage remained in effect on the omitted third parcel, the Bankruptcy Court found that the defendants retained no equity in the third parcel. The court concluded that the bank had a colorable claim to the third parcel and, on February 23, 1995, lifted the stay4 to enable the bank “to take whatever action is appropriate in state court under the circumstances.”5
Returning to Superior Court, the bank moved to open the judgment of strict foreclosure. Despite the defendants’ objection, the court, R. Walsh, J., granted the motion and permitted the bank to file an amended complaint requesting new law days for the omitted third parcel. On May 15, 1995, the trial court, Pickett, J., granted the bank’s motion to render “judgment of strict foreclosure upon the amended complaint containing all other terms previously entered . . . .”6
Before the law day on the third parcel had passed, the defendants appealed to the Appellate Court, which *255reversed the judgment of the trial court in light of its conclusion that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to open the 1994 foreclosure judgment. The court construed the last sentence of § 49-157 to preclude further trial court jurisdiction after title has vested in the foreclosing mortgagee with respect to any part of the mortgaged property. New Milford Savings Bank v. Jajer, 44 Conn. App. 588, 594-95, 691 A.2d 598 (1997). In addition, the court construed § 49-18 to preclude the bank from seeking further relief because its failure to pursue a deficiency judgment had the effect of discharging the defendants from further liability on the underlying note. Id., 595-96.
The bank filed a petition for certification to appeal to this court. We granted certification to consider only the following question: “Did the Appellate Court properly conclude that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to open the judgment of foreclosure based on General Statutes §§ 49-15 and 49-1?” New Milford Savings Bank v. Jajer, 241 Conn. 906, 695 A.2d 540 (1997).9 We disagree with the conclusion of the Appellate Court that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to render the 1995 foreclosure judgment.10
I
We consider, first, the defendants’ claim that § 49-15 deprived the trial court of jurisdiction to grant the bank’s motions to open the judgment of foreclosure *256and to file an amended foreclosure complaint to correct the bank’s inadvertent omission of the third parcel from its original complaint. Relying on the language of § 49-15 that “no such judgment [of strict foreclosure] shall be opened after title has become absolute in any encum-brancer,” the Appellate Court agreed with the defendants that the statute applied to any mortgage foreclosure, total or partial. New Milford Savings Bank v. Jajer, supra, 44 Conn. App. 594. We construe the statute differently.
A
The law governing strict foreclosure lies at the crossroads between the equitable remedies provided by the judiciary and the statutory remedies provided by the legislature.11 In re American Metal Products Co., 276 F.2d 701, 704 — 705 (2d Cir. 1960); see Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Hillcrest Associates, 233 Conn. 153, 164-74, 659 A.2d 138 (1995). Because “foreclosure is peculiarly an equitable action . . . the court may entertain such questions as are necessary to be determined in order that complete justice may be done.” Hartford Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Lenczyk, 153 Conn. 457, 463, 217 A.2d 694 (1966); see Chappell v. Jardine, 51 Conn. 64, 69 (1883) (court of equity can devise appropriate remedy for enforcement of lawful lien). In exercising its equitable discretion, however, the court must *257comply with mandatory statutory provisions that limit the remedies available to a foreclosing mortgagee. Nau-gatuck Savings Bank v. Fiorenzi, 232 Conn. 294, 305, 654 A.2d 729 (1995). It is our adjudicatory responsibility to find the appropriate accommodation between applicable judicial and statutory principles. “Just as the legislature is presumed to enact legislation that renders the body of the law coherent and consistent, rather than contradictory and inconsistent . . . [so] courts must discharge their responsibility, in case by case adjudication, to assure that the body of the law — both common and statutory — remains coherent and consistent.” (Citations omitted.) Fahy v. Fahy, 227 Conn. 505, 513-14, 630 A.2d 1328 (1993).
The equitable nature of foreclosure proceedings persuades us that § 49-15 does not preclude the trial court from exercising its discretion to open the judgment of strict foreclosure in the circumstances of this case. To apply the statutory mandate that, “after title [to real estate] has become absolute in any encumbrancer,” a judgment of foreclosure cannot be opened, we must identify the property for which “title has become absolute.” The statute describes the relevant property as the “real estate” that was the subject of the initial foreclosure judgment. On its face, the statute makes no distinction between partial and total foreclosures. Whether the statute bars the bank’s motion to open and amend the initial strict foreclosure judgment depends, therefore, on whether the terms of the 1994 foreclosure vested title in the bank to two or to three parcels of land. The trial court has the authority to determine the scope of the initial foreclosure judgment, and, therefore, whether the foreclosure judgment properly may be opened under § 49-15.
Before exercising its discretion to open the initial foreclosure to permit the bank to amend its complaint, the trial court properly held a hearing to assist it in *258deciding what property was covered by the original 1994 foreclosure judgment. See Hartford Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Lenczyk, supra, 153 Conn. 463 (inquiry into relevant circumstances was required to fulfill judiciary’s equitable obligation “in order that complete justice may be done”). In this case, it was entirely reasonable for the court to conclude that the original foreclosure judgment encompassed only the two vacant parcels and not the third improved parcel. The foreclosure complaint itself was so limited, and the defendants conceded that “the Bank’s mortgage remains on the third parcel . . . .”
The legal effect of the bank’s inadvertent omission was that the title to the third parcel remained under a cloud. As would be true for any mortgaged property in Connecticut before foreclosure, the bank’s title was a fee simple subject to defeasance by the defendants’ exercise of their equity of redemption. State v. Stonybrook, Inc., 149 Conn. 492, 496, 181 A.2d 601, cert. denied, 371 U.S. 185, 83 S. Ct. 265, 9 L. Ed. 2d 227 (1962). Thus, the bank’s title to the third parcel was not absolute. Because no one had absolute title to the third parcel at the time of the bank’s motion to open and to amend, § 49-15 did not limit the jurisdiction of the trial court to exercise its equitable discretion and modify the scope of the 1994 foreclosure judgment with respect to the third parcel.
Moreover, as best we can determine, the legislature’s purpose in enacting § 49-15 was not to preclude amendment to correct scrivener’s errors, but rather to set out an orderly framework for a mortgagee’s exercise of the equity of redemption.12 We have no access to the *259legislative history of § 49-15 because the original statute was enacted prior to the inauguration of published legislative history in 1945.13 Legislators’ remarks on subsequent amendments to § 49-15, however, emphasize that the purpose of § 49-15 is to ensure equitable foreclosure proceedings. For example, in 1967, when Public Acts 1967, No. 286 was enacted to delete a reference to the Circuit Court term, Representative Milton Caplan spoke in favor of the amendment, asserting that it “would permit a party equitably to come before the court and ask to reopen a judgment of foreclosure.” 12 H.R. Proc., Pt. 6, 1967 Sess., p. 2717. Speaking in favor of Public Acts 1975, No. 75-11, which clarified that a court could open a judgment of foreclosure prior to the passage of the law day, even if that occurred in a subsequent court term, Representative James T. Healey explained that the bill “states specifically that the power of the court to reopen the judgment and extend the law day exists up until such time as the time for redemption has passed; in other words, [until] a person’s rights have expired completely. It is a matter of equity and fairness . . . .” 18 H.R. Proc., Pt. 2, 1975 Sess., pp. 904-905.
Although the foregoing legislative remarks focus on the protection of the mortgagor’s equity of redemption *260rather than on the scope of a trial court’s authority to open a foreclosure judgment, they shed some light on the purpose of § 49-15 and on its intended impact. First, the legislative history of those amendments emphasizes the legislature’s understanding of foreclosure as an equitable proceeding and the consequent duty of the court to do justice to protect the rights of all the interested parties. Second, the remarks imply that the legislature’s purpose in barring courts from opening a judgment, after the mortgagor’s failure to redeem, was not to limit the mortgagee from further pursuit of its newly vested property rights but rather to prohibit the mortgagor from subsequent challenges to the enforceability of the mortgagee’s property rights.
Neither the text of § 49-15 nor the purpose that it was intended to serve requires us to construe the statute so broadly that it would preclude trial courts from exercising their equitable discretion to correct inadvertent omissions in mortgage foreclosure proceedings. The defendants have not alleged that the bank’s error caused them, in any way, to change their position to their detriment. The defendants were aware that a mortgage deed “remain[ed] unreleased on the land records . . . .” New Milford Savings Bank v. Jajer, supra, 44 Conn. App. 596. In these circumstances, if the defendants were to prevail on this issue, they would receive an unexpected and unjust windfall. Thus, as a matter of statutory construction, we conclude that § 49-15 does not deprive the trial court of jurisdiction to open a judgment of foreclosure to correct an inadvertent omission in a foreclosure complaint.
B
As support for its construction of § 49-15, the Appellate Court also relied on the proposition that “a mortgage cannot be foreclosed piecemeal . . . .” New Milford Savings Bank v. Jajer, supra, 44 Conn. App. *261595. We reject so categorical a limitation on the rights of a mortgagee.13a We need not decide, in this case, whether to go as far as the Nebraska Supreme Court, which held that, even for an intentional omission of mortgaged property, “[t]he bank’s action against [one parcel] does not deny it the right to enforce its multiple security interests in further actions involving different parties and different parcels of land.” Dupuy v. Western State Bank, 221 Neb. 230, 237, 375 N.W.2d 909 (1985). At least in the circumstances of this case, in which the bank inadvertently omitted the third parcel from the original foreclosure action, we can discern no persuasive reason to preclude a subsequent foreclosure on the omitted parcel as a matter of law.14 On this record there is no basis for a claim that the bank waived its rights to such a foreclosure.15 We conclude that, consistently with its authority to exercise its equitable discretion in foreclosure proceedings, the trial court must be afforded the authority to open judgments on a case-by-case basis “in order that complete justice may be done.” Hartford Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Lenczyk, supra, 153 Conn. 463.
Our decision to permit partial foreclosures to be opened in appropriate circumstances is supported by *262public policy considerations. We agree with the Nebraska Supreme Court’s observation that an unconditional ban on partial foreclosures might well disserve all the interested parties because “requiring foreclosure upon all properties would needlessly involve the additional properties in litigation.” Dupuy v. Western State Bank, supra, 221 Neb. 237; see Michigan National Bank v. Martin, 19 Mich. App. 458, 463-64, 172 N.W.2d 920 (1969).16
Furthermore, our conclusion is consistent with the law governing marshalling. Marshalling, an equitable principle, requires a mortgagee, in the case of a mortgage secured by several parcels of real estate, to foreclose first on those parcels that do not secure junior encumbrances.17 Restatement (Third), Property, Mort*263gages § 8.6, p. 633 (1997);18 see D. Caron, Connecticut Foreclosures: An Attorney’s Manual of Practice and Procedure (3d Ed. 1997) § 16.01A, p. 429; see also Bry-son v. Newtown Real Estate & Development Corp., 153 Conn. 267, 271-72, 216 A.2d 176 (1965). Implicit in the concept of marshalling is the understanding that a mortgagee does not waive an encumbrance on one of the parcels securing a mortgage by first foreclosing on other parcels. As long as junior lien creditors on all parcels securing the mortgage are made defendants in the foreclosure,19 so that they have an opportunity to request an apportionment if appropriate, partial foreclosure neither waives the mortgagee’s encumbrance nor impairs the rights of other interested parties.20 In this case, *264because all the junior lienors held security interests in all three parcels of land, no junior encumbrancer was deprived of the opportunity to petition for an apportionment.21
Accordingly, we conclude that the Appellate Court improperly determined that § 49-15 deprived the trial court of jurisdiction, in the circumstances of this case, to open the judgment of foreclosure.
II
The Appellate Court further concluded that, even if the bank’s original foreclosure judgment in 1994 did not include the third parcel, the mortgage on that parcel had become unenforceable because of the bank’s failure to enforce its right to a deficiency judgment against the defendants. General Statutes § 49-14.22 Relying on § 49-1, the court stated that “a judgment of strict foreclosure extinguishes all rights of the foreclosing mortgagee on the underlying note, with the exception of rights enforceable through the use of the deficiency judgment procedure under General Statutes § 49-14. . . . [A]ffcer the judgment of foreclosure and the running of the law days, the [bank] is no longer able to foreclose that *265mortgage because the underlying note has been extinguished.” New Milford Savings Bank v. Jajer, supra, 47 Conn. App. 595-96. We disagree.
The defendants argue that, under § 49-1, foreclosure of a mortgage bars both in rem and in personam actions on a mortgage debt. They assert that the language of § 49-1 precludes further action of both types against any person liable for such payment over whom the court could assert in personam jurisdiction. We reject this construction of the statute.
We begin our analysis of § 49-1 by observing that, textually, the section does not address a foreclosing mortgagee’s right to enforce its interest in property that remains subject to an unreleased mortgage on the land records and that was not the subject of any previous foreclosure. Section 49-1 makes a mortgage foreclosure “a bar to any further action upon the mortgage debt, note or obligation against the person or persons who are liable for the payment thereof who are made parties to the foreclosure . . . .” (Emphasis added.)
This text poses a serious problem for the defendants. The statute addresses the mortgagee’s right to pursue personal remedies against the mortgagors with respect to their personal obligations on the underlying instrument of debt.23 It does not address the mortgagee’s *266right to pursue, instead, its in rem remedies against the mortgaged property. See Hodge v. Hodge, 178 Conn. 308, 313, 422 A.2d 280 (1979) (“an action in rem is an action brought to enforce or protect a pre-existing interest in particular property” [internal quotation marks omitted]). Whether the statute should be construed as impliedly barring an in rem remedy depends on whether, in expressly barring an in personam remedy, the statute has extinguished the mortgage debt itself.
As a general proposition, it is established law that the mortgage bears a close relationship to the underlying debt. The mortgage secures the debt. New England Savings Bank v. Bedford Realty Corp., 238 Conn. 745, 759, 680 A.2d 301 (1996); Restatement (Third), supra, § 1.1, p. 8. The mortgage follows the debt, in the sense that the assignment of the note evidencing the debt automatically carries with it the assignment of the mortgage. Waterbury Trust Co. v. Weisman, 94 Conn. 210, 218-19, 108 A. 550 (1919); Restatement (Third), supra, § 5.4, p. 380. The mortgage cannot survive the extinction of the debt. Hartford National Bank & Trust Co. v. Kotkin, 185 Conn. 579, 581, 441 A.2d 593 (1981).
It is also established law, however, that, upon the default of the mortgagor, the mortgagee has multiple remedies against both the mortgagor and the mortgaged property. “[T]he plaintiff is entitled to pursue its remedy at law on the notes, or to pursue its remedy in equity upon the mortgage, or to pursue both. A note and a mortgage given to secure it are separate instruments, executed for different purposes and, in this State, action for foreclosure of the mortgage and upon the note are regarded and treated, in practice, as separate and distinct causes of action, although both may be pursued in *267a foreclosure suit.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hartford National Bank & Trust Co. v. Kotkin, supra, 185 Conn. 581; see Wendell Corp. Trustee v. Thurston, 239 Conn. 109, 116, 680 A.2d 1314 (1996); New England Savings Bank v. Bedford Realty Corp., supra, 238 Conn. 759. Under our cases, a mortgagee’s failure to pursue a deficiency judgment is not an election of remedies and does not, per se, extinguish the debt so as to preclude further equitable relief by way of foreclosure on the mortgaged property.24
We are not persuaded that the legislature intended § 49-1, by barring further action “against the person or persons who are liable for the payment thereof,” to extinguish the defendants’ personal liability as well as their mortgage debt.25 Restatement (Third), supra, § 1.1, p. 8 (“[a] mortgage is enforceable whether or not any person is personally liable for that performance”). By barring action on the mortgage debt, § 49-1 proscribes a remedy, but does not eliminate the underlying debt. See, e.g., Markham v. Smith, 119 Conn. 355, 359, 176 A. 880 (1935) (“the statute of limitations does not destroy the debt but merely bars the remedy”). Because the statute does not speak to the continued existence of the mortgage debt, it does not supersede the bank’s continuing access to equitable foreclosure proceedings.26
*268If the Appellate Court finds no merit in the remaining issues raised by the defendants in that court, the trial court, on remand, will need to consider the extent of the bank’s continuing mortgage interest in light of its past foreclosure of the mortgage with respect to the first and second parcels. If the bank decides to pursue an action for foreclosure, it must establish the amount of the mortgage debt. New England Savings Bank v. Bedford Realty Corp., supra, 238 Conn. 760 (“[i]npursuing the remedy of strict foreclosure [the mortgagee] or its assignee nevertheless will have to establish the amount of the debt that [the defendant] owes”). The bank must assume the burden of proving the amount by which that debt has been diminished by its acquisition of fee title to parcels one and two.27
The judgment of the Appellate Court is reversed and the case is remanded to that court for its consideration of the remaining issues raised by the defendants’ appeal.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.