Yerardi's Moody Street Restaurant & Lounge, Inc. v. Board of Selectmen of the Town of Randolph

COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge.

In this appeal, we are asked to decide whether a town decisionmaking body may be held liable for an equal protection violation if less than a majority of its members possesses bad faith intent. We need not answer the question, however, because we find that any error was harmless since plaintiff’s proof of malicious intent to injure was too flimsy to support a rational jury’s finding. We therefore affirm.

I. Background

In 1980, Yerardi’s Moody Street Restaurant & Lounge, Inc. (Yerardi’s) purchased an establishment called Capuchino’s, which held a license allowing it…