LaCava v. Lucander

• Decision Date: 10 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-P-549.,01-P-549.
• Parties: Thomas LaCAVA v. Vilho LUCANDER & others.[ 1 ]
• Court: Appeals Court of Massachusetts

Page 1

Thomas LaCAVAv.

Vilho LUCANDER & others.[¹]

No. 01-P-549.

Court of Appeals of Massachusetts.

October 10, 2002.

July 10, 2003.

Cemetery. Constitutional Law, Imprisonment, Equal protection of laws. Anti-Discrimination Law, Public accommodation. Civil Rights, Availability of remedy. Statute, Construction. Administrative Law, Judicial review.

Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on October 20, 1999.

Motions to dismiss and for reconsideration were heard by Timothy S. Hillman, J.

Thomas LaCava, pro se. John J. Clougherty, III, for the defendants.

Present: Gelinas, Doerfer, & Green, JJ.

GELINAS, J.

While a prisoner at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction, serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife, Thomas LaCava contacted a Worcester funeral director, asking that the director arrange for a burial plot for his remains in Woodside Cemetery, a town cemetery in Westminster.[²] Woodside is the same cemetery where his wife is buried. The funeral director reported to LaCava that the cemetery commission had refused the request, offering instead to provide LaCava a burial plot in Whitmanville Cemetery, another Westminster town cemetery. Upon the refusal, LaCava brought suit in Worcester Superior Court. LaCava named the three Westminster cemetery commissioners as defendants, both in their capacity as cemetery commissioners and as individuals. The original complaint contained allegations of civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The defendants removed the matter to Federal District Court, where LaCava then moved to dismiss all claims under Federal law and requested the matter be remanded to the State Superior Court. After remand, LaCava filed an amended complaint in three counts, claiming that the town's denial (1) infringes upon his equal protection rights under art. 1 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights (count I); (2) violates G.L. c. 272, § 98, in that he is denied admission to a place of public accommodation (count II); (3) constitutes a violation of Massachusetts's equal rights statute, G.L. c. 93, § 102 (count II); and (4) constitutes an abuse of discretion, and is arbitrary, capricious, and in excess of the commission's authority (count III). A Superior Court judge allowed the defendants' motion to dismiss under Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), 365 Mass. 755 (1974), and later denied LaCava's motion for reconsideration. Both rulings were entered in simple marginal notation, unaccompanied by findings, memoranda, or comment. LaCava appeals from both the dismissal and the denial of his motion for reconsideration. We affirm.

Background. For context, we set out in the margin the governing statutory provisions, G.L. c 114, §§ 10, 22-24, according to which the cemetery was established and operates, and pursuant to which the commissioners were elected.[³] The commissioners, pursuant to § 23, adopted rules and regulations, reissued July 1, 1999, containing various provisions dealing with perpetual care, foundations, monuments, the allocation of the costs of interment, the disposition of funds, and the like. Regulation B, "Sale of Lots/Perpetual Care," states in part: "The purchase of a lot or any other interment space gives the purchaser the right of interment ... and the right to provide an approved memorial. The ownership of the land remains with the Town of Westminster and all lots and graves are subject to Chapter 114 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." See McAndrew v. Quirk, 329 Mass. 423, 425 (1952) (purchaser of cemetery lot ordinarily does not obtain a fee but acquires only right of burial or easement to use lot for burial). It is clear that Woodside cemetery is a public cemetery, governed by and under the provisions of G.L. c. 114.

In refusing LaCava's request for a burial plot in Woodside, the commission, through its chair, Vilho Lucander, indicated that "there has been much concern ... from [LaCava's] daughters and other[s] in the town" and that "to be fair and sensitive to their concerns, ... [LaCava] could not be buried in Woodside Cemetery but there is another town cemetery, Whitmanville, where [he] could purchase a grave." Minutes of an earlier commission meeting include the following entry: "[LaCava] is serving time for the murder of his wife and the family objects to the presen[ce] of his remains in the same area as his wife's." Minutes of a subsequent meeting report that "Town coun[sel] has supported our decision to supply/sell a lot to Mr. LaCava in the Whitmanville Cem. and prevent the anguish the family has displayed at the thought he would be buried in an area near his wife's grave whom he murdered."

Discussion. In testing claims against a motion to dismiss pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), "a complaint is sufficient unless it shows beyond doubt that there is no set of facts which the plaintiff could prove in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." White v. Spence, 5 Mass.App.Ct. 679, 683 (1977), quoting from Howard v. G.H. Dunn Ins. Agency, Inc., 4 Mass.App.Ct. 868 (1976). Complaints should be read indulgently in favor of the pleader when considering a motion to dismiss. "[T]he allegations of the complaint, as well as such inferences as may be drawn therefrom in the plaintiff's favor, are to be taken as true." Nader v. Citron, 372 Mass. 96, 98 (1977). "[A] complaint is sufficient against a motion to dismiss if it appears that the plaintiff may be entitled to any form of relief, even though the particular relief he has demanded and the theory on which he seems to rely may not be appropriate." Id. at 104.

We first note that LaCava has, on appeal, specifically waived any claim to a burial plot based on his rights under G.L. c. 114, § 33,[⁴], [⁵] and accordingly, we exclude from consideration here any possible claim under that section of the statute.[⁶]

1. Equal protection. We next consider LaCava's claim in count I that he was denied equal protection under art. 1 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Our review of an equal protection claim is the same under the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights as it is under the Fourteenth Amendment. Rushworth v. Registrar of Motor Vehicles, 413 Mass. 265, 272 (1992). LaCava makes no claim that the statute enabling the creation of town cemeteries or the town by-law governing their operation violates art. 1. Compare Karchmar v. Worcester, 364 Mass. 124, 135-136 (1973). Rather, his equal protection claim is based on the commission's actions denying him burial space in the cemetery of his choice. In order to invoke "strict scrutiny" of the commission's action, see Blixt v. Blixt, 437 Mass. 649, 660 (2002), LaCava must show that he was treated differently because of his membership in a suspect class, or that the commission's actions trammeled on one of his fundamental rights. Absent such showing, we look only to see whether the commission's action bore a "reasonable relationship to some proper object." Bauza v. Morales Carrion, 578 F.2d 447, 450 (1st Cir.1978).

LaCava does not claim, nor does a generous reading of his complaint suggest, that he is a member of a suspect class, that is, a member of a class that is "saddled with such disabilities, or subjected to such a history of purposeful unequal treatment, or relegated to such a position of political powerlessness as to command extraordinary protection from the majoritarian political process." Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 313 (1976), quoting from San Antonio Sch. Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 28 (1973). Suspect classes for equal protection purposes include classifications based on race, religion, alienage, national origin and ancestry, and certain quasi suspect classes, based on gender and illegitimacy. See Soares v. Gotham Ink of New England, Inc., 32 Mass.App.Ct. 921, 923 (1992); Owens v. Ventura County Superior Ct., 42 F.Supp.2d 993, 998 (C.D.Cal.1999). "Although ... seriously disadvantaged when ... compared to individuals at liberty and although they are the subject of political hostility, [inmates qua inmates, and not part of another recognized class] do not constitute a suspect class because their status is the result of precise, individualized application of otherwise neutral laws." Graham v. Bowen, 648 F.Supp. 298, 301 (S.D.Tex.1986). See Hastings v. Commissioner of Correction, 424 Mass. 46, 53 (1997) (prisoners not inherently suspect classification for equal protection purposes); Lee v. Governor of N.Y., 87 F.3d 55, 60 (2d Cir.1996); Davis-El v. O'Leary, 626 F.Supp. 1037, 1043 (N.D.Ill.1986).

Nor do we think that the right to be buried in a cemetery of one's choosing is a fundamental right for purposes of equal protection, such that the commission's actions here would be subject to the strict scrutiny required when fundamental rights are violated. Fundamental rights generally are those that stem explicitly from or are implicitly guaranteed by the Constitution. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 217 & n. 15 (1982). Burial in a particular cemetery is not viewed as a fundamental or essential right where not required by the fundamental right of freedom of religious practice. See Mount Elliott Cemetery Assn. v. Troy, 171 F.3d 398, 404, 407 (6th Cir.1999) (Roman Catholic religion does not require burial in Catholic cemetery; court noted proximity of other cemeteries acceptable to religious beliefs of the plaintiff's members). No such claim of impairment of religion is apparent or inherent in LaCava's complaint. On its face, LaCava's complaint alleges facts that preclude a basis for recovery under count I; the allegation that the commission refused his request in order to comply with the wishes of LaCava's daughters and to forestall the anguish they would suffer provides a minimal rational basis supporting the commission's actions. See Abdulah v. Commissioner of Ins., 907 F.Supp. 13, 16 (D.Mass.1995), quoting from LCM Enterprises, Inc. v. Dartmouth, 14 F.3d 675, 679 (...