Court Opinion

ID: 9749697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:58:59.452054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:55.736052
License: Public Domain

Peters, J.
(concurring). I concur that the trial court was in error in its judgment for the defendant. I agree that the plaintiff has stated a cause of action *538that may entitle him to equitable relief. But I am not persuaded that, on the present record, the plaintiff has as yet demonstrated his entitlement to a judgment on his own behalf.
The majority opinion concludes that the plaintiff was not afforded a meaningful hearing. I have difficulty in identifying in what way the hearing was defective. The hearing did not charge the plaintiff “with wearing yellow shoes.” Whatever the utility of the “yellow shoe” discussion at the trial, I submit, with deference, that the “yellow shoe” issue is in fact a red herring. The hearing did charge that the plaintiff’s conduct in the incident on the club dock constituted a violation of a club bylaw condemning conduct “detrimental to the welfare, interest or character of the Club.” The plaintiff has not argued that this bylaw is on its face improper or unreasonable, or that the hearing held pursuant thereto deprived him of notice or of a fair opportunity to be heard; in short there is no direct allegation of a lack of procedural due process.
As I read the plaintiff’s briefs and the majority opinion, the hearing was improper because it led to the imposition of a sanction, expulsion, that was disproportionate to the charge filed against the plaintiff. Indeed, the majority opinion quotes the trial court’s memorandum of decision which suggests that judicial opprobrium would not have attended a sanction of censure or of suspension. It is not clear to me how an unreasonable sanction is, in and of itself, evidence of the absence of a meaningful hearing. If a similar hearing, resulting in a lesser sanction, would not have violated our statutes, I do not see why this hearing should be characterized as “not meaningful.” Suppose that *539the club had promulgated a bylaw uniformly requiring the expulsion of any member who damaged the property of any other member. I wonder whether we would have found fault with a hearing, otherwise unimpeached, to enforce such a bylaw?1
It does seem, to me, however, that another portion of General Statutes § 33-459 (a) may well afford the plaintiff the relief he seeks. The statute requires, inter alia, that bylaws be “equally enforced as to all members.” It may well be that the disparity in treatment between the sanction imposed upon the plaintiff and the dismissal of the charges against Hunter Muller would furnish evidence of the defendant’s violation of this provision. The plaintiff at trial offered other evidence of disparate treatment as well. The trial court never reached this issue because it decided the case on the ground that mandamus did not lie. I would therefore find error and remand for a new trial.

 The standard for review that is suggested by the concurring opinion of Justice Healey is one to which I might well subscribe in a case which provided an appropriate evidentiary base for its application. On the record before us, however, we have a trial court’s memorandum of decision that concluded only that mandamus was an improper remedy. At best, the plaintiff ambiguously alleged bad faith; there are no allegations of fraud whatsoever. In this state of the pleadings, I do not see how this memorandum of decision can reasonably be interpreted as finding, by convincing proof, that the plaintiff is entitled to relief on this theory.