Most scintillating conversations don’t involve Connecticut trial court decisions regarding nonconforming uses. But for anybody in the business of land use, among them planners, regulators and lawyers, and for those owning and operating a big business that is a nonconforming use, the issues are important.

A recent trial court decision is worth spending the time to consider for several reasons, chief among them are that the stakes are high because of the nature of the business, and there is ongoing litigation, including a $30 million federal lawsuit against the town of East Haven and another against the mayor and three other officials seeking $25 million. Also, the decision comes from Judge Marshall K. Berger, who has done more to create a consistent body of good land-use law than any jurist in the memory of those who have been around since he became a judge in 1988. And on top of all that, not one, not two, but all three of the state’s leading land law luminaries stepped up to opine for the property owner that the use was a vested nonconformity.