Bruce Brayman Builders, Inc. v. Lamphere

Plaintiff applied to the Town Planning Board for the Town of Hopkinton for a preliminary plan approval of a minor subdivision. The Town Planner stated that he would certify the subdivision application as complete once Plaintiff submitted proof that it had paid certain outstanding personal property taxes. Plaintiff filed a complaint seeking a writ of mandamus to compel the Town Planner to certify its subdivision application as complete (the mandamus count) and amended its complaint to add a count seeking a declaration that the requirement for an applicants such as Plaintiff to pay “property taxes” refers only to real property taxes (the declaratory judgment count). The trial justice dismissed the mandamus count but for Plaintiff’s failure to exhaust its administrative remedies but summarily ruled that the declaratory judgment count survived. The trial justice subsequently denied, sua sponte, Plaintiff’s request for declaratory relief, concluding that Plaintiff had failed to exhaust its administrative remedies. The Supreme Court vacated the judgment and remanded, holding that the trial justice abused his discretion when he sua sponte invoked the administrative exhaustion doctrine in the course of denying Plaintiff declaratory relief where neither party had briefed or argued that doctrine. View "Bruce Brayman Builders, Inc. v. Lamphere" on Justia Law