Langbein v. Planning Bd. of City of Stamford

• Citation: 145 Conn. 674,146 A.2d 412
• Court: Supreme Court of Connecticut
• Decision Date: 20 November 1958
• Parties: Edward E. LANGBEIN et al. v. PLANNING BOARD OF the CITY OF STAMFORD et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 412

146 A.2d 412

145 Conn. 674

Edward E. LANGBEIN et al. v. PLANNING BOARD OF the CITY OF STAMFORD et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Nov. 20, 1958.

John N. Cole, Stamford, with whom, on the brief, was David F. Babson, Jr., Stamford, for appellants (plaintiffs).

Joseph L. Melvin, Stamford, for appellees (defendant Walter H. Gildemeister), with whom were Raymond G. Cushing, Corp. Counsel, and Arthur L. DiSesa, Asst. Corp. Counsel, Stamford, for appellee (defendant board).

Before DALY, C. J., and KING, MURPHY and MELLITZ, JJ., and SHEA, Superior Court Judge.

MELLITZ, Associate Justice.

On April 4, 1956, the defendant planning board approved a subdivision of land owned by the other defendants in the city of Stamford. The plaintiffs, claiming to be aggrieved, appealed to the Court of Common Pleas. From a judgment dismissing the appeal, this appeal has been taken.

The plaintiffs alleged that they were residents and taxpayers in Stamford and owned property near the subdivision. Section 529 of the Stamford charter provides for an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas by any person aggrieved by an official decision of the planning board. 26 Spec. Laws 1233. We recently pointed out in Tyler v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 145 Conn. ----, 145 A.2d 832, that to be an aggrieved person entitled to maintain an appeal under statutes containing similar provisions one must be specially and injuriously affected in his property or other legal rights, unless the case involves some aspect of traffic in liquor. The burden of proving that they were aggrieved and entitled to maintain an appeal was upon the plaintiffs. There is no allegation in the complaint, and no reference in the stipulation of facts filed by the parties, to any damage or injury to any property rights of the plaintiffs resulting from the approval of the subdivision; and the only basis for their alleged aggrievement is a claim they made at the public hearing on the application--that there was a danger of pollution of their water supply by sewage drainage from the subdivision. The trial court concluded that the plaintiffs had not maintained 'the burden of proving that the Planning Board's approval of the application resulted in a health hazard to them or their properties.' Since the sole ground of the plaintiffs' aggrievement was the threatened health hazard to them and their properties, this conclusion deprived the appeal of a vital factor essential to its maintenance.

Section 524 of the Stamford charter, relating to the subdivision of land, prescribes that all plans of a subdivision shall be submitted to the planning board for approval and that the board, before exercising its functions, shall adopt and publish regulations which shall provide that the land to be subdivided shall be usable for building purposes without danger to health. 26 Spec.Laws 1231. A public hearing on seven days' notice by publication is required. Id. § 525. The planning board duly adopted and published regulations that no land held by the board to be unsuitable by reason of any feature likely to be harmful to health should be subdivided for residential use; that where a public sanitary sewer was not reasonably accessible, provision for disposal of sanitary sewage by a method approved by the health department was required; and that tentative approval of a subdivision by the board was to be considered only as approval of the layout, subject to examination and modification by the city engineer with respect to design of the proposed drainage, sewerage and water systems, for the protection of the public interest. Stamford Planning Board Subdiv. Regs., §§ 4(A)(1), 6(B)(2), 3(A) (1955). The regulations thus expressly provided that, in the process of the approval of a subdivision, the health department had a function to perform where the disposal of sanitary sewage was in question, and the city engineer had a function with relation to the design of proposed sewerage, drainage and water systems.

On October 13, 1955, the individual defendants, hereinafter called the defendants, applied to the board for approval of a subdivision of a tract of land located between Westover Road and the Mianus River in Stamford near land owned by the plaintiffs. On October 26, the board held a public hearing on the application. The plaintiffs appeared by counsel and presented evidence in opposition, with particular emphasis upon a claimed danger of pollution of nearby wells by sewage draining from the subdivision. At the hearing, the chairman stated that approval of a subdivision plan was subject to 'engineering and health' and that the plaintiffs would have an opportunity to be heard by those departments. On November 1, the board tentatively approved the subdivision 'subject to approval by Department of Health' and so notified the plaintiffs' counsel by letter dated November 2. On November 4, the plaintiffs' counsel sent the commissioner of health a lengthy letter reviewing and summarizing the evidence presented at the hearing on October 26 and attached an analysis of the evidence, with comments thereon, by experts employed by the plaintiffs. On November 7, the defendants' counsel sent the commissioner a letter on the subject. A letter in rebuttal from the plaintiffs' counsel was sent the commissioner on November 18, and a final letter from the plaintiffs' counsel was sent on January 26, 1956. On November 30, 1955, and again on February 6, 1956, without notice to the plaintiffs or their counsel, officials of the health department, accompanied by the defendants' counsel and one of the defendants, as well as the surveyors who prepared the subdivision layout, inspected the subdivision tract. Neither the plaintiffs nor their counsel were present. On February 16, the commissioner of health approved the subdivision plan on behalf of the health department. On February 1, the plan was referred to the city engineer, and he approved it on March 1. On April 4, the planning board gave its final approval and recorded a certificate to that effect in the Stamford land records, as required by the charter. 26 Spec. Laws 1233, § 525.1.

The claims stressed by the plaintiffs in brief and argument are that the board illegally delegated the decision of the question of health which was...