Seymour v. Region One Board of Education

• Decision Date: 20 August 2002
• Docket Number: (SC 16650).
• Citation: 261 Conn. 475,803 A.2d 318
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: GABRIEL SEYMOUR ET AL. v. REGION ONE BOARD OF EDUCATION ET AL.

261 Conn. 475

803 A.2d 318

GABRIEL SEYMOUR ET AL. v. REGION ONE BOARD OF EDUCATION ET AL.

(SC 16650).

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 20, 2002.

Officially released August 20, 2002.

Borden, Norcott, Palmer, Vertefeuille and Zarella, Js. Gabriel Seymour, certified legal intern, with whom was Eugene P. Falco, for the appellants (plaintiffs).

Ralph E. Urban, assistant attorney general, with whom, on the brief, were Richard Blumenthal, attorney general, and Bernard F. McGovern, Jr., assistant attorney general, for the appellee (defendant Richard Blumenthal).

Opinion

BORDEN, J.

The principal issue in this appeal¹ is whether the plaintiffs' challenge to the constitutionality of the financing system for regional school districts pursuant to General Statutes § 10-51 (b),² presents a nonjusticiable political question. The plaintiffs, Gabriel Seymour, Thomas R. Coolidge, Susan Dempsey, Stephen W. Jenks and Joyce Schurk, claim that the trial court improperly dismissed their complaint on the grounds of nonjusticiability. We conclude that the plaintiffs' claim is justiciable and, accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court to the contrary.

The plaintiffs, who are taxpayers in the town of Canaan, brought this declaratory judgment action³ against the defendants, Region One board of education (board) and Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general,⁴ seeking a judgment: (1) declaring § 10-51 (b) unconstitutional on its face and as applied; and (2) directing the board to change its system of cost allocation among its member towns so that the tax burden falls equally on all taxpayers in the regional school district served by the board. The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that: (1) the plaintiffs lack standing; and (2) the plaintiffs' claims are nonjusticiable because they present a political question. The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground of nonjusticiability.⁵ This appeal followed.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs made the following allegations. They are taxpayers in Canaan, which is one of the six member towns of Regional School District Number One (district), the other towns being Cornwall, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon. The costs of education for high school students and for certain kindergarten through eighth grade students are assessed on the towns by the board according to the formula set forth by § 10-51 (b). That formula assesses each member town an amount that "bear[s] the same ratio to the net expenses of the district as the number of pupils resident in such town in average daily membership in the . . . district during the preceding school year bears to the total number of pupils in all the member towns . . . ."⁶ General Statutes § 10-51 (b). Because "[l]ocal property taxes are the principal source of revenue for public schools," because the statutory formula "disregards variations in the total taxable property in each town," and because Canaan has substantially less valuable taxable property than every other town in the district, except for North Canaan, "the tax burden on [the] plaintiffs and other taxpayers" in Canaan for educating their students "is substantially greater than the equivalent cost to taxpayers in every other member town . . . except for North Canaan."

The plaintiffs further alleged that "education costs constitute the single largest expense in most town budgets," and that "the unequal burdens of the present regional cost allocation formula sharply impact the total tax burden on small town taxpayers," such as the plaintiffs. "As a result, § 10-51 (b) unfairly discriminates against small Connecticut towns by forcing them to pay an unequal share of the expenses of educating students [as compared to] their bigger and wealthier neighbors."

In addition, the plaintiffs further alleged that "[t]he incidents of taxation should fall, as far as possible, equally on all similarly situated. Such equal taxation is mandated by the due process and equal protection provisions of both the United States and Connecticut Constitutions. All persons similarly circumstanced should be treated alike. . . . The Region One cost assessment formula based simply on student ratios violates this constitutional principle because the tax burden per student falls much more heavily upon the taxpayers of Canaan (and North Canaan) than on similarly situated taxpayers of surrounding municipalities. This fundamental inequality of taxation can only be corrected by directing the establishment of a uniform tax rate applicable to all taxpayers throughout the Region." The plaintiffs offered, by way of further allegation, a "constitutional . . . method for determining regional cost allocations . . . by dividing the projected total net education expenses for the region by the total equalized Grand List of taxable property for all member towns combined, thereby establishing a single regional [mill] rate to be assessed equally against all property in all member towns."⁷

Finally, the plaintiffs alleged that they had sought to remedy the unconstitutionality of which they complain through both the board and the Canaan board of selectmen. They alleged that these efforts were unsuccessful, that "the logical alternative forums have been exhausted and [that the] plaintiffs have no alternative but to turn to the courts to resolve the question."

The core of the plaintiffs' complaint, therefore, is as follows. First, the statutory formula set by § 10-51 (b), which requires each town to contribute to the district's educational expenses based on the per pupil cost of education—i.e., the total educational expenses of the district divided by the number of the town's resident students served thereby—deprives the plaintiffs, who are taxpayers of a relatively property tax poor town, of their state and federal constitutional rights to due process of law and equal protection of the laws. Second, the only way in which this unconstitutionality may be remedied is by making the district into a single taxing district for the purposes of education, with a uniform mill rate. The district would then assess each town an amount based, not on the per pupil cost of education, but on the value of the real property in that town— i.e., by multiplying the uniform mill rate by the total assessed value of the town's real property. The plaintiffs claim that their complaint presents a justiciable claim. The defendant claims, to the contrary, that it does not and, by way of an alternate ground on which to affirm the trial court's judgment, that the plaintiffs lack standing. We conclude that: (1) the plaintiffs' claim is justiciable; and (2) the question of the plaintiffs' standing cannot be determined properly on the present record, and that an evidentiary hearing is necessary for that determination.

I JUSTICIABILITY

We first note that, in deciding whether the complaint presents a justiciable claim, we make no determination regarding its merits. We do not consider, for example, whether it would survive a motion to strike on the ground that it does not state a valid cause of action for deprivation of the constitutional rights asserted, or whether it would survive a motion for summary judgment on the basis that the undisputed facts show that no such constitutional deprivations have occurred. We consider only whether "the matter in controversy [is] capable of being adjudicated by judicial power. . . ." Nielsen v. State, 236 Conn. 1, 6, 670 A.2d 1288 (1996).

"The principles that underlie justiciability are well established. Justiciability requires (1) that there be an actual controversy between or among the parties to the dispute . . . (2) that the interests of the parties be adverse . . . (3) that the matter in controversy be capable of being adjudicated by judicial power . . . and (4) that the determination of the controversy will result in practical relief to the complainant. . . . State v. Nardini, 187 Conn. 109, 111-12, 445 A.2d 304 (1982); Pellegrino v. O'Neill, 193 Conn. 670, 674, 480 A.2d 476, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 875, 105 S. Ct. 236, 83 L. Ed. 2d 176 (1984). The third requirement for justiciability, [commonly referred to as] the political question doctrine, is based on the principle of separation of powers. Nielsen v. Kezer, 232 Conn. 65, 75, 652 A.2d 1013 (1995); Pellegrino v. O'Neill, supra, 680. The characterization of [an issue] as political is a convenient shorthand for declaring that some other branch of government has constitutional authority over the subject matter superior to that of the courts. Pellegrino v. O'Neill, supra, 680. The fundamental characteristic of a political question, therefore, is that its adjudication would place the court in conflict with a coequal branch of government in violation of the primary authority of that coordinate branch. Baker v. Carr, [369 U.S. 186, 217, 82 S. Ct. 691, 7 L. Ed. 2d 663 (1962)]. Nielsen v. Kezer, supra, 74.

"Whether a controversy so directly implicates the primary authority of the legislative or executive branch, such that a court is not the proper forum for its resolution, is a determination that must be made on a case-by-case inquiry. Id., 74-75. Prominent on the surface of any case held to involve a political question is found a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it; or the impossibility of deciding without an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion; or the impossibility of a court's undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government; or an unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made; or the potentiality of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on one question. Unless one of these formulations is inextricable from the case at...