Lazarevich v. Stoeckel

• Decision Date: 25 July 1933
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: LAZAREVICH v. STOECKEL, State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles.

167 A. 823

117 Conn. 260

LAZAREVICH v. STOECKEL, State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 25, 1933

Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; Ernest A. Inglis Judge.

Action by Peter Lazarevich claiming an injunction ordering the defendant, Robbins B. Stoeckel, State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, to issue to the plaintiff a certificate for the retail sale of gasoline, brought to the superior court, where a demurrer to the complaint was sustained, and, the plaintiff failing to plead further, judgment was rendered for the defendant, from which the plaintiff appealed.

No error.

Franklin Coeller, of New Haven, for appellant.

Bernard A. Kosicki, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Warren B. Burrows Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Argued before MALTBIE, C.J., and HAINES, HINMAN, BANKS, and AVERY, JJ.

MALTBIE, Chief Justice.

The complaint alleges that the plaintiff has for a number of years conducted a gasoline station and store for the sale of automobile accessories in the borough of Guilford and has operated the gasoline station under a certificate from the commissioner of motor vehicles issued in accordance with the provisions of chapter 84, § 1659 and following, of the General Statutes, as amended by section 310a and following of the Cumulative Supplement of 1931; that he purchased certain premises on the same street lying one hundred feet easterly, and desired to remove the location of his business to them; that he procured from the warden and burgesses of the borough a certificate of approval of the location of his gas station on them, which was filed with the commissioner; that the commissioner thereafter notified him that he had caused an examination to be made of the premises, and found that the location of the station on them would imperil the safety of the public; that the commissioner refused to issue the necessary certificate to enable him to operate the station there, and that in so doing he acted illegally, arbitrarily, and in abuse of his discretion; that by this refusal the plaintiff has been deprived of his right to conduct his business and earn his living upon the premises, thereby causing him irreparable injury pending the determination of an appeal from the decision of the commissioner; and that he has no adequate remedy at law. The relief sought was a temporary and permanent injunction to compel the commissioner to issue to him a certificate to operate the gas station. The defendant demurred to the complaint upon several grounds not necessary to rehearse, the trial court sustained the demurrer, and, the plaintiff refusing to plead further, judgment was rendered for the defendant.

The statute to which we have referred provides that no gasoline station situated as would be that which the plaintiff intended to operate can be established or maintained, unless a certificate shall first be secured from the commissioner stating that the business will not imperil public safety; and it requires as a preliminary that any applicant for such a certificate shall file with the commissioner an approval of the location, if it is in a borough, from the warden. The statute also provides for an appeal by any person aggrieved by any action of the commissioner to the superior court for Hartford county. The...