Court Opinion

ID: 9645820
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:36:16.014693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:31.911363
License: Public Domain

Loiselle, J.
(concurring). I concur in the result. I do not agree, however, that the defendants lack standing to challenge the constitutionality of the licensing ordinance and I believe that the court should have addressed itself to this claim.
The majority opinion adopts the view that the defendants may not be heard to attack the eonstitu*94tionality of the ordinance since they have not applied for a license and have not had an application refused. The defendants’ license previously issued was revoked and from the history of this litigation it may be reasonably concluded that an application for a license would now be a futile act. “Such a useless course is unnecessary.” Dooley v. Town Plan & Zoning Commission, 151 Conn. 304, 314, 197 A.2d 770; Corsino v. Grover, 148 Conn. 299, 308, 170 A.2d 267. In Teuscher v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 154 Conn. 650, 228 A.2d 518, the refusal of the appellant to seek a permit to mine sand and gravel did not compel this court to refuse to review the appellant’s claim that the ordinance requiring such a permit was unconstitutional. In fact, this court has questioned the propriety of attacking the constitutionality of a statute after an application for a license under the attacked statute has been made. Cyphers v. Allyn, 142 Conn. 699, 702, 118 A.2d 318; Ruppert v. Liquor Control Commission, 138 Conn. 669, 673, 88 A.2d 388; Strain v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 137 Conn. 36, 38, 74 A.2d 462. It is noteworthy that the opinion in Keating v. Patterson, 132 Conn. 210, 215, 43 A.2d 659, relied on in the majority opinion for the proposition that an application must be made before the ordinance can be attacked, specifically mentions the fact that the question of whether the issue of constitutionality was properly presented was not questioned either in the trial court or in this court.
With regard to the constitutionality of the attacked ordinance, a lengthy discussion of the matter is unnecessary since the standards and provisions of the ordinance meet the test of constitutionality. State v. Stoddard, 126 Conn. 623, 628, 13 A.2d 586.