Vogel v. Town of New Milford

290 A.2d 231, 161 Conn. 490, 1971 Conn. LEXIS 582
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedAugust 13, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 290 A.2d 231 (Vogel v. Town of New Milford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vogel v. Town of New Milford, 290 A.2d 231, 161 Conn. 490, 1971 Conn. LEXIS 582 (Colo. 1971).

Opinion

*491 Shapiiio, J.

The defendant board of selectmen of the town of New Milford, hereinafter referred to as the board, granted an application of the defendant William E. Thomas, hereinafter referred to as Thomas, for a change of name for his automobile junk yard business from Bill’s Garage to Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc. The plaintiff, an adjoining landowner, appealed to the Court of Common Pleas from the action of the board. That court found the plaintiff to be an aggrieved person. Her appeal was dismissed and she has now appealed to this court from the judgment rendered.

The plaintiff assigns error in the trial court’s refusal to find certain facts which she claims are admitted or undisputed. One addition claimed by the plaintiff is implicit in the finding as made. Broderick v. Shea, 143 Conn. 590, 591, 124 A.2d 229. Since the remaining additions sought are either immaterial or are nowhere shown to be admitted or undisputed, no corrections are warranted. Practice Book § 628 (a); Martin v. Kavanewsky, 157 Conn. 514, 5.16, 255 A.2d 619; Maltbie, Conn. App. Proc. § 158.

The trial court found those unchallenged facts: The plaintiff resides on and owns property in New Milford adjoining land of Thomas and his wife, Maybelle, on which Thomas, as sole proprietor, operated an automobile junk yard under the name of Bill’s Garage. Since June 14, 1967, by resolution adopted at a duly-warned town meeting, both properties have been in a restricted district where the further establishment of automobile junk yards is forbidden. On November 26,1963, prior to the establishment of the restricted district, pursuant to statutory requirement, Thomas applied for a license to operate an automobile junk yard which, after a hear *492 ing, was granted by the local authority on December 13, 1963. The automobile junk yard has been in operation since that day. On January 23, 1969, Thomas filed a trade name certificate in the town clerk’s office indicating that he was conducting business as an individual under the name of Bill’s Auto Wrecking. On March 13, 1969, Thomas, his wife and one other person executed a certificate of incorporation in the name of Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc. 1 Thomas transferred no assets to the corporation nor did he take any further steps to complete its organization. On June 13,1969, he made an application to the board for permission to change the name of the junk yard business from Bill’s Garage to Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc. The application was duly advertised on June 19, 1969, and was followed by a public hearing on July 11, 1969, where the plaintiff offered opposition and the board granted the application. No stenographic or mechanical record of the public hearing before the board was made.

The plaintiff has challenged, as being without evidence, the finding of fact that the resolution of the board on June 14, 1967, creating the restricted district, was never published as required by § 21-24 of the General Statutes.

The trial court reached the following conclusions: (1) The defendant Thomas was granted a junk yard license by the town of New Milford on December 13, 1963, and from said date until the present time has conducted his business at the approved location; *493 (2) the change of name in this ease does not constitute the issuance of a new license contrary to the restricted district ordinance adopted June 14, 1967; (3) the defendant Thomas was the dominant shareholder of the corporation Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc.; (4) the corporate form may be disregarded where it is the mere instrumentality or alter ego of the dominant shareholder; (5) the resolution of June 14, 1967, was never validly adopted by the town of New Milford in that the proposed regulation was never published by the town clerk pursuant to § 21-24 and (6) the defendant Thomas cannot be estopped from denying legal publication by the defendant town of New Milford.

I

The plaintiff assigns as error the overruling of her claim of law that the action of the board in granting Thomas’ application of June 13, 1969, for a change of name from Bill’s Garage to Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc., is arbitrary, capricious, in abuse of discretion and contrary to the law because there was an actual change of ownership before the date of the hearing on July 11,1969, from Bill’s Garage to Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc., a corporation. As earlier recited, the trial court made an uneontested finding of fact that a certificate of incorporation was duly executed on March 13, 1969. Section 33-289 (a) (2) of the General Statutes provides that on endorsement of the certificate of incorporation by the secretary of the state the corporate existence begins. The copy of the endorsed certificate is made conclusive evidence that all conditions precedent to incorporation have been complied with and that the corporation has been duly incorporated. § 33-289 (b). Thus, *494 since the certificate of incorporation was endorsed by the secretary of the state, the corporation existed as a separate legal entity at the time of the hearing of July 11,1969.

Since the trial court made an uneontested finding that no assets of the individual defendant Thomas were transferred to the corporation, the trial court was correct in overruling the plaintiff’s claim of law that ownership of the junk yard was transferred to the corporation prior to the hearing on July 11, 1969.

II

The plaintiff assigns as error the conclusions of the court (1) that Thomas was the dominant shareholder of the corporation, Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc., and (2) that the corporate form may be disregarded if it is the mere instrumentality or alter ego of the dominant shareholder. These conclusions must stand unless they are legally or logically inconsistent with the facts found or unless they involve the application of some erroneous rule of law material to the case. Johnston Jewels, Ltd. v. Leonard, 156 Conn. 75, 79, 239 A.2d 500. Here, there is nothing in the court’s finding of fact to support its conclusion that Thomas was the dominant shareholder of Bill’s Auto Wrecking, Inc., nor is there anything to indicate that if he was, his control was being used in this case to commit a fraud or to perpetuate a dishonest or unjust act. There is, in fact, nothing in the record before us which would support the application of the “instrumentality” or “identity” rules as set out in Zaist v. Olson, 154 Conn. 563, 575, 227 A.2d 552, which would permit us to disregard the corporate form. Thus, the conclusions of the trial court cannot stand.

*495 III

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Bluebook (online)
290 A.2d 231, 161 Conn. 490, 1971 Conn. LEXIS 582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vogel-v-town-of-new-milford-conn-1971.