Town of Chaplin v. Balkus
| Decision Date | 08 March 1983 |
| Citation | 189 Conn. 445,456 A.2d 286 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | TOWN OF CHAPLIN v. Wallace J. BALKUS et al. |
Richard W. Lafferty, Hartford, for appellants (defendants).
John D. Boland, Putnam, for appellee (plaintiff).
Before SPEZIALE, C.J., and PETERS, HEALEY, PARSKEY and SHEA, JJ.
This is an action to enforce municipal trailer regulations. The plaintiff, the town of Chaplin, brought an action in two counts against the defendants, Wallace J. Balkus and Lucille E. Balkus, to require them to remove or apply for an occupancy permit for one of their trailers and to remove entirely their second, unoccupied trailer. The defendants filed an answer, special defenses and a counterclaim which was stricken on the plaintiff's motion by Dannehy, J. 1 After referral of the case to Loiselle, J., state referee, judgment was entered by stipulation of counsel. On the defendants' motion, after they had been cited for contempt of the stipulated judgment, the trial court, Goldberg, J., opened the judgment, heard the case on the merits, and found the issues for the plaintiff. From the judgment accordingly rendered, the defendants have appealed.
The trial court, in its oral memorandum of decision, found the defendants in violation of the Chaplin trailer regulations with regard to both of their trailers. It found that one trailer was in violation because it was vacant, 2 and the other was in violation because of the defendants' failure to apply to the planning and zoning commission for an occupancy permit. 3
In the trial court, controversy centered not on whether the trailers were occupied or whether the defendants had failed to apply for a permit, both of these issues virtually being conceded by the defendants, but upon the propriety of characterizing the occupied trailer as a mobile home within the Chaplin trailer regulations. The defendants argued that their mobile home was a structure and not a trailer, because it was mounted on a concrete foundation rather than on wheels. The trial court concluded that the plaintiff was correct in its characterization of the mobile home as a trailer, and that conclusion has not been challenged on this appeal.
Instead, the defendants now seek a new trial on two issues not addressed in the trial court: an alleged denial of equal protection grounded on a claim of selective and discriminatory enforcement of the plaintiff's zoning ordinances, and an alleged denial of due process in the timing of the hearing before Goldberg, J. 4 The defendants acknowledge that they introduced no evidence on the record on these issues in the trial court and took no exception to rulings of the court allegedly limiting their opportunity to make a suitable presentation relating thereto. They urge this court nonetheless, in the interests of justice and fair play, to set aside the judgment against them and to order further proceedings. 5 We decline to do so.
Nothing in the record before us establishes that this case presents exceptional circumstances warranting departure from our well-established rule limiting appellate review to claims distinctly raised in the trial court. Practice Book § 3063; State v. Evans, 165 Conn. 61, 70, 327 A.2d 576 (1973). With respect to the equal protection claim, we have noted previously that Carini v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 164 Conn. 169, 174, 319 A.2d 390 (1972), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 831, 94 S.Ct. 64, 38 L.Ed.2d 66 (1973). A belated invocation of constitutional principles of equal protection is no substitute for the timely building of an evidentiary record showing a pattern of discrimination that has been consciously practiced. 6
For similar reasons, the defendants' due process claim cannot prevail. The defendants' argument that they were unconstitutionally deprived of a reasonable opportunity to prepare for trial before Judge Goldberg is supported neither by the record nor by authority. The record reveals no request for a continuance, and, a fortiori, no improper denial of such a request. This court cannot respond to claims based on allegations extraneous to the formal record. Accurate Forging Corporation v. UAW Local No. 1017, 189 Conn. 24, 27-28, 453 A.2d 769 (1983). Furthermore, the defendants have cited no authority that confers upon them an absolute constitutional right to a continuance under the circumstances of this case, even if one had been properly requested and...
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