Court Opinion

ID: 9749698
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:58:59.456748+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:34.251590
License: Public Domain

Arthur H. Healey, J.
(concurring). I concur in the result. The plaintiff’s brief specifically points out that the bylaws are not unreasonable per se but does attack their application to him in expelling him from the defendant club.1 “[E]ven though the *540rules themselves may be unobjectionable, the acts of members of an association in enforcing the rules of the organization may be unreasonable, oppressive, and wrongful, and call for judicial interference.” 6 Am. Jur. 2d, Associations and Clubs § 8. Some decisional law has been said “[to] establish the common law principle that whenever a private association is legally required to refrain from arbitrary action, the association’s action must be both substantively rational and procedurally fair.” See Pinsker v. Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists, 12 Cal. 3d 541, 550, 526 P.2d 253 (1974). Where an expelled member “can show improper treatment, the courts can and will grant damages or even order his reinstatement.” deck, Non-Profit Corporations and Associations (1956) § 24. We recognize today that in the ordinary case, courts should be reluctant to intervene in the affairs of private clubs; but this is not the ordinary case. The parameters expressed by the Florida courts merit attention where they state: “We agree that the courts should leave to the members of a private social club or to the proper board to which the members have lawfully delegated that power, the right to determine whether the action of a member has been such that, in the opinion of such Board, it would interfere with the pleasant, friendly and congenial social relationship between the members. In the absence of a clear allegation and convincing proof, if the case reaches that stage, of fraud or bad faith, the action of the members or duly delegated board should not be reviewed by the courts.” (Emphasis added.) State *541of Florida ex rel. Barfield v. Florida Yacht Club, 106 So. 2d 207, 211 (Fla. App. 1958); see McCune v. Wilson, 237 So. 2d 169, 171 (Fla. 1970).
One noted commentator, Professor Zechariah Chafee, Jr., in addressing the internal affairs of associations, said: “Denial of a remedy at law to the expelled member should not prevent him from obtaining equitable relief.” Chafee, “The Internal Affairs of Associations Not for Profit,” 43 Harv. L. Rev. 993, 1013 (1930). “Equity courts are well endowed with tools for shaping association behavior. The most familiar and powerful is the injunction, prohibitive or mandatory, which may be directed against all members of a defendant association. .. .” Note, “Judicial Control of Actions of Private Associations,” 76 Harv. L. Rev. 983, 1095 (1963). “That a member of an incorporated club may not be expelled except in conformity with its rules is well established, and one wrongfully expelled may seek relief in equity. . . . This jurisdiction long since recognized that courts may not interfere unless a determination by the club’s constituted authorities is ultra vires, fraudulent or made contrary to good faith.” (Emphasis in original.) Angland v. Doe, 263 F.2d 266, 267-68 (D.C. Cir. 1958).
“The granting of injunctive relief in each case is within the sound discretion of the trial court exercised according to recognized principles of equity. Dimmock v. New London, 157 Conn. 9, 18, 245 A.2d 569 [1968]; Waterford v. Grabner, 155 Conn. 431, 434, 232 A.2d 481 [1967]; Lebanon v. Woods, 153 Conn. 182, 195, 215 A.2d 112 [1965]; Holt v. Wissinger, 145 Conn. 106, 113, 139 A.2d 353 [1958]. ... In exercising its discretion, the court, in a proper case, may consider and balance the injury complained of with that which will result *542from interference by injunction. . . .” Moore v. Serafin, 163 Conn. 1, 6, 301 A.2d 238 (1972).
“It is said that every wrong has its remedy; so it may be said that every case requiring equitable relief has its corresponding mode of redress.” Chappell v. Jardine, 51 Conn. 64, 69, (1883); see Sears v. Hotchkiss, 25 Conn. 170 (1856); 2 Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence (5th Ed.) §§ 423, 424; 27 Am. Jur. 2d, Equity § 120. The unreasonable application of a reasonable bylaw lends itself peculiarly to the shaping of the equitable relief we order today.

 The plaintiff sought mandamus and equitable relief. As to the latter he alleged the lack of an adequate remedy at law and irreparable injury (including “serious and unjustified injury to his social and professional reputation”). See Theurkauf v. Miller, 153 Conn. *540159, 161, 214 A.2d 834 (1965). In addition, the complaint specifically alleges that the defendant’s action in expelling him was “unnecessary, unwarranted and unjustly severe in relation to the offense charged ... in clear contravention of the By-Laws . . . and arbitrary and capricious.”