Posted on 07/17/2021 5:41:33 AM PDT by george76
State court turns down Lantana’s attempt to dismiss suit over whether sky-high fines for minor violations violate the Florida Constitution..
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—This morning, a Florida court rejected the town of Lantana’s attempt to end a lawsuit filed by resident Sandy Martinez, who is contesting sky-high fines she was assessed for minor infractions on her own property. One parking violation, assessed daily for over a year, totals more than $100,000. The total amount the town fined her, which includes two other infractions, comes to an astounding $165,000, more than half what her home is worth. In February, Sandy teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to file a lawsuit asking the court to rule that her excessive fines violate the state constitution.
“Six-figure fines for parking on your own property are outrageous and today’s decision will allow Sandy to make the case that these fines are unconstitutional,” said IJ Attorney Ari Bargil. “While Florida’s Constitution forbids fines that are ‘excessive’ or ‘shock the conscience’, places like Lantana routinely impose crippling fines against residents for minor code violations. It is time that Florida courts make it clear that cities cannot fine people into poverty for trivial violations.”
“It’s surreal that the town still refuses to admit that what it’s doing to me is abusive and unfair,” said Sandy. “Like everyone else in my neighborhood, I work hard for what I’ve got. I shouldn’t have to fight in court to stop the city from fining me into poverty. But with today’s decision, I’m glad that I am one step closer to making sure that doesn’t happen—to me or anyone else.”
The $165,000 that Sandy owes is a result of daily fines that the city assessed for property code violations. Most of this amount is a result of the way Sandy’s family parks their cars. Sandy, her two adult children and her sister all own cars so that they can get to their jobs. When all four cars are parked in the driveway, sometimes one of them has two tires on the lawn, a $250 per day violation. And those fines continue to accrue until the homeowner corrects the problem and calls the city to inspect the property to confirm it is in compliance.
After receiving the parking violation, Sandy called the town like she was supposed to, but an inspector never came out. Once Sandy discovered that the fines were still accruing over a year later, she immediately called and passed the inspection. But by then, the amount she owed was $101,750. This fine is on top of fines for two other similarly trivial violations—for cracks in the driveway and a fence that fell over during a storm.
IJ has challenged abusive fines and fees across the country, notably in Dunedin, Florida, where a homeowner is facing foreclosure after he was fined over $30,000 in fines for tall grass. IJ has successfully protected homeowners in California and Missouri from abusive fines and fees practices. In 2019, IJ released a study of cities that relied heavily on fines and fees to balance their budgets, “The Price of Taxation by Citation,” and in 2020 released a 50-state survey of state laws governing municipal fines and fees.
Pretty disgusting. Stuff like this happens in my Town, too...except to Board Members, Supervisors, favorite sons.
We call these code inspectors and HOA inspectors “sidewalk nazis” where I live.
If I were the judge, I would be checking to see if I can fine the mayor, each of the members of the city council, and the city codes inspectors for this violation of this woman’s constitutional rights and if I can sentence them to prison time under the laws of the state of Florida.
Remember Dennis Rader? Known as ‘BTK’ - which stands for bind, torture, kill - murdered 10 people in the Wichita, Kansas area from 1974 to 1991, often leaving clues to taunt authorities... working for the Wichita suburb of Park City as a compliance supervisor in 1991. .. He measured the height of people’s lawns and ..
More criminal, democrat party government.
These fines are clearly excessive and will not stand.
Notwithstanding the previous sentence, homeowners, left to their own proclivities, will trash a neighborhood and lower everybody’s property values. Parking cars on your lawn is one of the worst violations.
This woman needs to be fined a “reasonable amount” and the City needs to find some common sense somewhere and back off.
“It’s surreal that the town still refuses to admit that what it’s doing to me is abusive and unfair,” said Sandy. “Like everyone else in my neighborhood, I work hard for what I’ve got. I shouldn’t have to fight in court to stop the city from fining me into poverty. But with today’s decision, I’m glad that I am one step closer to making sure that doesn’t happen—to me or anyone else.”
Gotta make up the budget shortfall somehow. Those fines are a great cash cow. Meanwhile they probably ignore real criime.
Parked with tires on the lawn? The horror. Lock her up!
It's beyond ludicrous
Sounds like someone has an ax to grind with her and is retaliating for some reason.
Reminds me of those Oklahoma towns/counties that relied on speeding tickets to finance their entire town/county budgets. Of course most of that money ended up divied up between the mayor, Sheriff and the judge.
It was particularly bad on interstates. Towns would buy, annex or condemn property just to get enough frontage to park a car then keep a deputy there all hours writing speeding tickets.
Aren’t you the good little commie?
“Nice little property ya got here. Sure would be a shame if something were to happen and you have to give it to us.”
Small towns are hotbeds of corruption.
We don’t live in an HOA community, but we still send our kids to the public schools, where the same type of animal roam freely...hmmm, maybe we should reconsider?
mm: So you are OK with your neighbors having cars up on blocks, weeds and dead grass everywhere and old refrigerators on their front lawn?
If not, you must be a commie.
Tis is how DemoRats get even....a fine is a Tax.....defund the cops here is a good idea.
People are no longer taught civics in school or how to act like a part of society, its every man for themself..People ae0 0re no longer taught theres a difference between " standing up for your rights" and just being a plain old " dirtbag"..
I live amongst HOA nazis and their neighborhood patrols and really find them annoying, Ive wanted to move but over all compared to other neighborhoods without hoa's. I prefer to live in a place with a few rules that are enforced instead of the anarchy of cars on lawns and broken trailers in front yards and people whos yards dont look like yards,
My HOA inspector drives the neighborhood every morning in his corvette drinking coffee looking to hit anyone he can. I had a small patch of dirt on my roof and got dinged. I took pictures of his roof and sent a complaint…covered in black mold. That was four years ago. It’s still on his roof. “Rules for thee but not for me…”
How did you go from two wheels on her own lawn to all of that nonsense? Try to stick to the facts.
I don’t care who IJ is. That Dunedin, Florida case - the property owner lost. And he deserved to lose.
Including that mention in this article is just an appeal to emotion.
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