Court Opinion

ID: 9752326
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 17:58:25.480411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:44:52.750575
License: Public Domain

*571Loiselle, J.
(dissenting). The majority opinion states that although a hearing before the motor vehicle commissioner need not follow any particular rule of practice or procedure, it is required that the conduct of the hearing shall not violate the fundamentals of natural justice. I cannot agree with the majority that the conduct of the hearing in this case followed that principle.
The record discloses that at the beginning of the hearing the hearing officer read into the record eleven previous charges of statutory violations against the plaintiff and the disposition of each. The record is silent as to any objection by the plaintiff. This omission, however, does not result in a waiver, since this was not a case of failure to object to testimony introduced by a party to the trial or hearing. The procedure in this instance had the hearing officer himself read in prior convictions, not as testimony by anyone but as a preliminary step prior to, and independent of, the taking of testimony. As the error assigned does not go to admissibility of evidence but to a procedure which is claimed to be highly prejudicial, the failure to object is not fatal under these circumstances to a review by this court. Why such prior violations were read into the record of the hearing is unknown. I agree that the record does support facts found by the commissioner as stated in the majority opinion. The record, however, would also support facts which indicate that when the plaintiff’s manager bought the vehicle from its vendor in New York, the odometer registered 16,505 miles and that the vendor, who later gave an affidavit that the mileage actually was 26,505, accepted a check for the vehicle at the time of purchase which stated on its face the figure of *57216,505. Further, at the time the vehicle was purchased in New York, the MV-50 form was not received and it takes up to a month for it to reach the purchaser.
I do not claim that the commissioner should have believed the evidence presented by the plaintiff, but I firmly believe that the credibility of the witnesses of the plaintiff could have been materially affected by the fact that the record showed he was an eleven-time “loser.” Proceedings before administrative agencies are necessarily informal, but hearings are required to be conducted so as not to violate the fundamentals of natural justice. Parsons v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 140 Conn. 290, 292-93, 99 A.2d 149; see Wadell v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 136 Conn. 1, 8-10, 68 A.2d 152.
I am confused by the statement in the majority opinion that it is assumed that a commissioner will “perform his duty.” This dissent is not meant to be interpreted as a reflection on the integrity of administrative officers. I do not claim that the commissioner acted improperly, but that the initial procedure which includes the prior alleged violations in the record used for determination of guilt is itself violative of due process.
“In determining the issues concerning the revocation or suspension of a dealer’s license, the commissioner acts in a quasi-judicial capacity.” Dan M. Creed, Inc. v. Tynan, 151 Conn. 677, 679, 202 A.2d 239. The fact that the commissioner does have in bis office or at his disposal a record of prior violations does not give him the right to consider such violations in determining whether a licensee has violated a statute any more than a judge, prior to a trial, may go to the clerk’s office to determine *573whether an aecused has a prior conviction record. Snch prior violations may be considered in determining the severity of sanctions after a finding of guilty but, I maintain, should not be considered in determining whether there is guilt. It must be noted, however, that we are not concerned with evidence of a past record of crimes for which the maximum penalty may be more than one year in prison where, by virtue of General Statutes § 52-145 and Heating Acceptance Corporation v. Patterson, 152 Conn. 467, 472, 208 A.2d 341, such record may be used to attack the credibility of a witness. No citation need be given to support the fact that a record of prior offenses can have a prejudicial effect on the credibility of a witness. We see this in court every day. I see no difference in effect between the evidence revealing prior crimes in the trial of a person charged with crime and a procedure where prior violations of regulatory statutes are read into the record of a hearing on the violation in the same area. This is especially so when the statute in question is penal in nature and where, in addition to suspension and revocation of a license, a fine may be imposed. As was stated in Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 539, 91 S. Ct. 1586, 29 L. Ed. 2d 90: “Suspension of issued licenses thus involves state action that adjudicates important interests of the licensees. In such cases the licenses are not to be taken away without that procedural due process required by the Fourteenth Amendment. . . . This is but an application of the general proposition that relevant constitutional restraints limit state power to terminate an entitlement whether the entitlement is denominated a ‘right’ or a ‘privilege.’ ” This principle would apply whether the sanction was a revocation or a suspension.
*574If the legislature does give administrative bodies quasi-judicial powers to determine whether there is a violation of a statute which is penal in nature, then the administrative bodies in accepting these powers have the duty to follow procedures which insure a fair hearing without prejudice to a person charged with the violation of such a statute.
In this dissenting opinion Bogdanski, J., concurred.