Yale Auto Parts, Inc. v. Johnson

In Yale Auto Parts, Inc. v. Johnson, 758 F.2d 54 (2d Cir.1985), the landowner had been denied a permit to use his property for an automobile junkyard business. Expressly invoking Roth, Judge Mansfield focused initially on whether the landowner had "a legitimate claim of entitlement" to the license he sought and formulated the test for this inquiry to be that "absent the alleged denial of due process, there is either a certainty or a very strong likelihood that the application would have been granted." Id. at 59. Finding that the licensing authorities had discretion in the issuance of the requested permit, the Court affirmed dismissal of the claim for lack of a protected property interest in the permit, even though the Court acknowledged that the allegations of the complaint alleged "egregious misconduct" by the defendants in the denial of the permit, id. at 59.