(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Mariculture Products Ltd. v. Those Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London, 84 Conn. App. 688, 703, 854 A.2d 1100, cert, denied, 272 Conn. 905, 863 A.2d 698 (2004). Given that the defendant utilized the outstanding mortgage debt as a setoff to negate the plaintiff’s award in the present case, that setoff necessarily reduced the amount of the plaintiff’s outstanding debt to the defendant by the $350,000 that the defendant did not have to pay to the plaintiff.

(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Mariculture Products Ltd . v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London , 84 Conn. App. 688, 703, 854 A.2d 1100, cert. denied, 272 Conn. 905, 863 A.2d 698 (2004) ; see id. (explaining that defendant will plead right of setoff "either to reduce the plaintiff's recovery, or to defeat it altogether, and, as the case may be, to recover a judgment in his own favor for a balance" (internal quotation marks omitted)). Because we affirm the court's decision to render summary judgment in favor of the defendant on count one of the complaint and the plaintiff has withdrawn count two, there can be no monetary judgment for the plaintiff subject to the defendant's asserted right to a setoff.

" 'Setoff is the right to cancel or offset mutual debts or cross demands . . . The concept of setoff allows [parties] that owe each other money to apply their mutual debts against each other, thus avoiding the absurdity of making A pay B when B in fact owes A.' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Mariculture Products Ltd. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London, 84 Conn.App. 688, 703, 854 A.2d 1100, cert. denied, 272 Conn. 905, 863 A.2d 698 (2004). 'A set-off is made where the defendant has a debt against the plaintiff arising out of a transaction independent of the contract on which the plaintiff sues, and desires to avail himself of that debt, in the existing suit, either to reduce the plaintiff's recovery, or to defeat it altogether, and, as the case may be, to recover a judgment in his own favor for a balance.'

(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Mariculture Products Ltd. v. Those Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London, 84 Conn.App. 688, 704, 854 A.2d 1100, cert. denied, 272 Conn. 905, 863 A.2d 698 (2004). II

(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Mariculture Products Ltd. v. Those Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London, 84 Conn.App. 688, 704, 854 A.2d 1100, cert. denied, 272 Conn. 905, 863 A.2d 698 (2004). Debt setoff is defined by General Statutes § 52-139(a), which provides: " In any action brought for the recovery of a debt, if there are mutual debts between the plaintiff or plaintiffs, or any of them, and the defendant or defendants, or any of them, one debt may be set off against the other."

" (Citations omitted; emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted.) Mariculture Products Ltd. v. Certain Underwriters Lloyd's of London, 84 Conn.App. 688, 703-04, 854 A.2d 1100, cert. denied, 272 Conn. 905, 863 A.2d 698 (2004). In the present case, the defendant incorporates the allegations alleged in its first special defense into its fourth special defense and claims that "[t]he defendant owes the plaintiff nothing, in that the plaintiff is indebted to the defendant by way of an offset or setoff in an amount equal to or greater than any amounts claimed against the defendant."