Walter W. Fischer, Trustee of Walter W. Fischer 1993 Trust v. New Hampshire State Building Code Review Board

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire affirmed a superior court decision upholding the reclassification of nine buildings from two-family dwellings to lodging or rooming houses under the State Fire Code. The court held that the reclassification was not an unconstitutional retrospective application, did not impair a vested property right, and was rationally related to fire-safety objectives. It also concluded that the code's existing-building provision did not exempt the properties from compliance and that the petitioner received adequate procedural protections.

Holdings

1. Applying the correct current fire-code occupancy classification prospectively to the properties was not an unconstitutional retrospective application because the petitioner was not penalized for conduct completed before the code's enactment.
2. The petitioner had no vested right to continued classification of the properties as two-family dwellings for purposes of fire-code application.
3. Durham v. White Enterprises did not establish a constitutional vested right applicable here, and State Fire Code section 1-9.2 did not exempt the petitioner's preexisting occupied buildings from compliance with code provisions applicable to existing buildings.
4. The State Fire Code's distinction between related and unrelated occupants did not violate equal protection because it was an economic and social classification rationally related to the permissible objective of protecting people and property from fire hazards.
5. The petitioner was not entitled to an adjudicative hearing before the state fire marshal under former Saf-C 6006.02 because that rule was preempted by RSA 155-A:11, and no public rulemaking hearing was required because the fire marshal enforced an existing rule rather than adopting a new one.

Questions Presented

1. Whether applying the current State Fire Code classification to the petitioner's existing buildings was an unconstitutional retrospective application under Part I, Article 23 of the New Hampshire Constitution.
2. Whether the petitioner had a vested or grandfathered right to continued classification of the properties as two-family dwellings under Part I, Article 12 of the New Hampshire Constitution.
3. Whether State Fire Code section 1-9.2 exempted the existing occupied buildings from code provisions applicable to existing lodging or rooming houses.
4. Whether the code's distinction between related and unrelated occupants violated equal protection.
5. Whether the procedures used by the fire marshal and the board denied the petitioner due process or required a public hearing under the rulemaking process.

Disposition

affirmed