Connecticut Mobile Home Ass'n, Inc. v. Jensen's, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 August 1979
• Citation: 178 Conn. 586,424 A.2d 285
• Parties: CONNECTICUT MOBILE HOME ASSOCIATION, INC., et al. v. JENSEN'S, INC.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 285

424 A.2d 285

178 Conn. 586

CONNECTICUT MOBILE HOME ASSOCIATION, INC., et al. v. JENSEN'S, INC.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued March 8, 1979.

Decided Aug. 7, 1979.

Roger Sullivan, Branford, with whom, on the brief, was William Beekman, for appellants (plaintiffs).

William R. Moller, Hartford, with whom were Wesley W. Horton, Hartford, and, on the brief, David L. Fineberg, Hartford, for appellee (defendant).

Before LOISELLE, BOGDANSKI, LONGO, PETERS and SIDOR, JJ.

LONGO, Associate Justice.

This action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief was brought by the named plaintiff, an association of mobile home owners (hereafter the association), and Frank and Hazel Recor, residents of a mobile home park owned by the defendant. ¹ The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant had sought to compel the Recors and other members of the association to execute a "Rental Agreement" that included terms in violation of General Statutes § 21-82 (Rev. to 1977), and the model rental agreement established by regulations of the real estate commission. The plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgment determining whether the lease provisions were valid, whether the defendant had acted in violation of statute by adopting the provisions in question and whether any such leases that members of the association had executed were void. The plaintiffs also sought an injunction restraining the defendant from representing that such leases had been approved by the real estate commission and from representing to the plaintiffs "that they must sign the ... 'Rental Agreement' or be subject to eviction." The defendant filed a demurrer to the complaint on the ground that the plaintiffs had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies. The court sustained the demurrer and, on the plaintiffs' failure to plead over, judgment was rendered for the defendant. The plaintiffs have appealed to this court, claiming that the court erred in (1) concluding that the plaintiffs could obtain adequate relief from available administrative remedies, and (2) sustaining a general demurrer to the entire complaint.

It is a settled principle of administrative law that, if an adequate administrative remedy exists, it must be exhausted before the Superior Court will obtain jurisdiction to act in the matter. Connecticut Life & Health Ins. Guaranty Assn. v. Jackson, 173 Conn. 352, 358-59, 377 A.2d 1099 (1977); State ex rel. Golembeske v. White, 168 Conn. 278, 282, 362 A.2d 1354 (1975); see 3 Davis, Administrative Law § 20.01; General Statutes §§ 4-175, 4-183. ² The plaintiffs do not dispute this principle but argue that the administrative remedy available in this case by resort to the real estate commission is not "adequate"; thus, it is claimed, the exhaustion requirement may be dispensed with. See Bianco v. Darien, 157 Conn. 548, 554, 254 A.2d 898 (1969). We must examine the complaint to determine whether the plaintiffs were required to exhaust an administrative remedy before the Superior Court could entertain this action. Whether prior recourse to the agency will be required will depend on the injury alleged and the administrative remedy available. We examine first that portion of the complaint supporting the prayer for declaratory relief.

The plaintiffs sought a judgment declaring certain provisions of the lease invalid and declaring leases executed with such provisions void. The real estate commission has the authority, under General Statutes § 4-176, to issue a declaratory ruling on the applicability of any statute or any regulation promulgated by it. This grant of authority includes the power to interpret statutes and regulations. Connecticut Life & Health Ins. Guaranty Assn. v. Jackson, supra, 173 Conn. 356-57, 377 A.2d 1099. If provisions of a mobile home park lease are contrary to statute or to regulation, as the plaintiffs here allege, the commission has the power to so conclude in a declaratory ruling. The plaintiffs, who could have petitioned for such a ruling, chose, instead, to bypass their administrative remedy and commence this action. This conduct contravened the clear mandate of § 4-175, which states that "(a) declaratory judgment may not be rendered unless the plaintiff has requested the agency to pass upon the validity or applicability of the regulation ... and the agency has either so acted or has declined to exercise its discretion thereunder."

The plaintiffs have presented us with no reason why this relief is inadequate, and we can conceive of none. It is, first, inaccurate to characterize, as do the plaintiffs, the powers of the commission in this matter as "peripheral." The terms and content of a rental agreement between a mobile home park tenant and park owner are regulated in the minutest detail as to what terms must be included; see General Statutes § 21-82; Regs., Conn. State Agencies § 21-82-1; and as to what terms may not be included. General Statutes § 21-83. The commission, moreover, has the power to revoke the license of a mobile home park owner for violation of statute or regulation; General Statutes § 21-71; to impose a fine of between fifty and three hundred dollars for each day that a violation continues; General Statutes § 21-71; and to prevent the park owner from collecting rents once the lease is revoked; General Statutes § 21-73. It is not the plaintiffs' preference for a particular remedy that determines whether the remedy before the agency is adequate; see, e. g., Connecticut Life & Health Ins. Guaranty Assn. v. Jackson, supra, 357, 377 A.2d 1099; and an administrative remedy, in order to be "adequate," need not comport with the plaintiffs' opinion of what a perfect remedy would be. Should the commission decide that the lease provisions violate statute or regulation, there is no reason why a court action for appropriate relief could not then be commenced. It is thus difficult to imagine, on the facts of the present case, a more effective panoply of remedies than those we have described above. If the plaintiffs had sought relief from the commission and obtained a ruling declaring the rental agreement invalid, the defendant would have been compelled to comply with the commission's decision or face fines and the interruption of its business. Finally, it is of more than casual significance that, subsequent to the trial court's ruling sustaining the defendant's demurrer in the present case, the individual plaintiffs did pursue the administrative process by requesting a ruling from the real estate commission as to the validity of the rental agreement presently at issue. The commission, on July 27, 1978, rendered a decision upholding the validity of the rental agreement, from which the plaintiffs have appealed. See Recor v. Real Estate Commission, Civ. No. 2304 99D, Hartford-New Britain Judicial District. Therefore, the central issue presented in this case has, after a proper initial resort to the administrative process, been preserved for judicial review.

In Connecticut Life & Health Ins. Guaranty Assn. v. Jackson, supra, we were presented with many of the claims made by the present plaintiffs. In holding that Connecticut Life had an adequate administrative remedy in the form of a declaratory judgment before the insurance commissioner, we noted that "CLHIGA has failed to demonstrate any way in which it will be injured by being forced to pursue its administrative remedy"; id., 359, 377 A.2d 1103; and concluded that "(t)he doctrine of exhaustion (of administrative remedies) is grounded in a policy of fostering an orderly process of administrative adjudication and judicial review in which a reviewing court will have the benefit of the agency's findings and conclusions. To allow a party seeking a declaratory judgment to bypass the entire process ... would be to interject an unnecessary and potentially confusing element into an otherwise well-defined area of the law." Id., 358-59, 377 A.2d 1103; see also Country Lands, Inc. v. Swinnerton, 151 Conn. 27, 33, 193 A.2d 483 (1963); State Water Commission v. Norwich, 141 Conn. 442, 447, 107 A.2d 270 (1954); McNish v. American Brass Co., 139 Conn. 44, 53, 89 A.2d 566 (1952). As in the Connecticut Life case, some stronger justification than that urged by the present plaintiffs is required for us to create an exception to submitting to the administrative process. See Astarita v. Liquor Control Commission, 165 Conn. 185, 190, 332 A.2d 106 (1973).

The plaintiffs also claim that the court below erred in sustaining the demurrer with respect to that portion of the complaint supporting the claim for injunctive relief. They argue that because the commission has no power to enjoin a summary process action, the court below erred in refusing to determine whether an injunction was appropriate. Although we conclude that the court properly...