Tedeschi v. Blackwood, Civ. No. H-75-140.

• Citation: 410 F. Supp. 34
• Decision Date: 22 March 1976
• Docket Number: Civ. No. H-75-140.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: Paul Alan TEDESCHI, individually and on behalf of all other persons who are similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Raymond P. BLACKWOOD et al., Defendants.

410 F. Supp. 34

Paul Alan TEDESCHI, individually and on behalf of all other persons who are similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Raymond P. BLACKWOOD et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. H-75-140.

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

March 22, 1976.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Chester W. Fairlie, Legacy, Inc., New London, Conn., for plaintiff.

Robert C. Leuba, Conway, Londregan, Leuba & McNamara, New London, Conn., for defendants Blackwood.

Cornelius F. Tuohy, Asst. Atty. Gen., Carl R. Ajello, Atty. Gen., State of Conn., Hartford, Conn., for defendant Pac.

James F. Brennan, Jr., Suisman, Shapiro, Wool & Brennan, Groton, Conn., for defendant Giesing.

Before SMITH, Circuit Judge, CLARIE and BLUMENFELD, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge:

This case involves a challenge under the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to provisions of Conn.Gen. Stat.Ann. § 14-150(b) and (c). The statute empowers a police officer or motor vehicle inspector, who has determined that a motor vehicle is either abandoned, unregistered or dangerously parked, to have the vehicle towed to a garage for storage. The statute further provides that all towing and storage charges which are accordingly incurred shall become a lien on the vehicle and that the lien may in time be foreclosed by the garage through its sale of the vehicle. The statute, however, does not afford a right to a hearing to a person wishing to contest the application of either its towing or its lien provisions to his vehicle.¹

I. THE BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

Sometime prior to the morning of February 8, 1975, the plaintiff Paul Tedeschi parked his car on a street in Groton, Connecticut. On the morning of February 8, the Groton police concluded that the car had been abandoned and accordingly, pursuant to Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 14-150(b), had it towed by Connecticut Road Aid, a local garage owned by defendants Raymond and Josephine Blackwood. (The Blackwoods and their garage are hereinafter referred to as "Road Aid.") Later that morning, upon discovering that his car was missing, Tedeschi telephoned the Groton police who informed him that it had been towed and that it was being stored at Road Aid. Tedeschi's attempts to obtain an opportunity to contest the legality of the seizure of his car were futile, although the shift sergeant at the Groton police station did listen to his complaints before issuing him a summons for having abandoned a motor vehicle in violation of Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 14-150(a).² Tedeschi later attempted to regain possession of his car from Road Aid, but as authorized by § 14-150(b), the garage conditioned its return of the car upon his payment of towing and storage charges. Tedeschi was unable to pay these charges.

On April 30, 1975, Tedeschi brought an action for damages and declaratory and injunctive relief pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Road Aid, the Groton police chief, and the commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Motor Vehicles ("the Commissioner"). The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, T. Emmet Clarie, Chief Judge, granted Tedeschi's motion for a temporary restraining order enjoining the sale of his car by Road Aid. On May 26, 1975, Tedeschi made a motion for class certification which, as amended on September 29, 1975, requested that he be allowed to proceed on behalf of himself and all other automobile owners in Connecticut directly affected by § 14-150(b) and (c). Since Tedeschi was seeking to enjoin the State's enforcement of the statute on constitutional grounds, this three-judge court was designated on August 7, 1975, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281 and 2284.

Two working days before the date scheduled for the hearing of this case, Road Aid offered to return Tedeschi's car in exchange for his promise to relinquish all his claims for damages, and Tedeschi accepted. The City of Groton paid $100 to Road Aid as partial compensation for any loss incurred by the garage as a result of this agreement, and in return Road Aid abandoned its counterclaim for damages against the city's police chief.

Specifically, Tedeschi now requests: (1) that he be allowed to proceed on behalf of himself and all other automobile owners in Connecticut directly affected by Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 14-150(b) and (c); (2) that the towing and lien provisions of § 14-150 be declared unconstitutional; (3) that Road Aid, the Groton Chief of Police, and their successors, employees, or agents be enjoined from depriving the plaintiff or any member of the proposed class of the possession of his automobile pursuant to the towing or lien provisions of § 14-150; and (4) that the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles and his successors, employees, or agents be enjoined from recognizing the validity of automobile sales effected pursuant to the lien provisions of § 14-150.

II. CLASS CERTIFICATION

The plaintiff's motion for class certification is granted. We conclude that the requirements of Rule 23(a) and (b)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P., are satisfied by the proposed class—all automobile owners in Connecticut directly affected by Conn. Gen.Stat.Ann. § 14-150(b) and (c). The size of the proposed class makes joinder of all its members impracticable, there are questions of law common to all the members, and the claims of the plaintiff are typical of those of the unnamed members. Moreover, since Tedeschi has withdrawn his damage claims, the proposed class qualifies under Rule 23(b)(2), for the defendants have

acted . . . on grounds generally applicable to the class, thereby making appropriate final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief with respect to the class as a whole.

Whether Tedeschi would "fairly and adequately protect the interest of the class," as required by Rule 23(a)(4), at first appears problematic since he at least arguably no longer alleges a cognizable personal claim against the defendants. On this issue, however, the present case is similar to the situation presented in Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975), where the Supreme Court determined the same issue saying:

In the present suit, where it is unlikely that segments of the class appellant represents would have interests conflicting with those she has sought to advance, and where the interests of that class have been competently urged at each level of the proceeding, we believe that the test of Rule 23(a) is met.

419 U.S. at 403, 95 S.Ct. at 559, 42 L.Ed.2d at 543 (footnote omitted). See also Frost v. Weinberger, 515 F.2d 57, 64-65 (2d Cir. 1975). Furthermore, Tedeschi is represented by a federally funded legal services office which has a clientele with a continuing interest in the subject matter of this action. See Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 110-11 n. 11, 95 S.Ct. 854, 861, 43 L.Ed.2d 54, 63 (1975).

Finally, since this is a 23(b)(2) class action, unnamed class members need not be given notice of its pendency. Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. at 397 n. 4, 95 S.Ct. at 556, 42 L.Ed.2d at 539; Frost v. Weinberger, 515 F.2d at 65.

III. THE MOOTNESS ISSUE

The defendants contend that this case is moot because Tedeschi has both regained possession of his car and relinquished all claims for damages. We disagree. Since we have certified this case as a class action on behalf of all automobile owners in Connecticut directly affected by the provisions of § 14-150(b) and (c), we need not decide whether it would be moot if the plaintiff had proceeded solely on his own behalf, for in light of Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 401, 95 S.Ct. 553, 558, 42 L.Ed.2d 532, 541 (1975), the instant case's status as a class action forecloses any issue of mootness that might have otherwise arisen.

The pertinent issue addressed by the Court in Sosna was under what circumstances the mooting of the named plaintiff's personal claims in a class action does or does not moot the entire action. The named plaintiff there brought a class action to challenge the constitutionality of an Iowa statute's one-year residence requirement for petitioners in marriage dissolution proceedings. Although by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, the named plaintiff had obtained a divorce in another state, the Court, nevertheless, ruled that the case was not moot. The Court's conclusion was predicated on its determination that four essential requirements had been met. We find that each of the requirements is also met in the instant case.

The first of these requirements was that the named plaintiff personally have had standing to sue at the time of the filing of his complaint. 419 U.S. at 402, 95 S.Ct. at 559, 42 L.Ed.2d at 542. In the instant case, Tedeschi clearly had standing when he initiated his action, for at that point Road Aid was denying him the possession of his car under the authority of the statute he sought to challenge.

The second requirement articulated in Sosna was that the case present an article III controversy at the time of its decision. 419 U.S. at 402, 95 S.Ct. at 559, 42 L.Ed.2d at 542. There, the Court found that this requirement was satisfied because

although the controversy was no longer live as to the appellant Sosna, it remained very much alive for the class of persons she had been certified to represent.

419 U.S. at 401, 95 S.Ct. at 558, 42 L.Ed.2d at 541. Here, the situation is similar. While Tedeschi may not be presently aggrieved by the implementation of the contested provisions of the Connecticut statute, the same cannot be said of the class of persons he has been certified to represent. Although unable to provide this court with the total number of motor vehicles subjected to the towing and lien provisions of § 14-150 over any period of time, defendant Commissioner conceded that from January 1, 1974, through February 28, 1975, Connecticut's Department of Motor Vehicles had been notified pursuant to § 14-150(c) of more than 1,730 vehicles that garages had held for at least thirty days under the...