A judge paved the way for a class action lawsuit of a federal lawsuit alleging tire chalking, so anyone who received a ticket from the practice may be entitled to compensation.
SAGINAW, Mich. (WJRT) – A class action lawsuit against the city of Saginaw over tire chalking to enforce parking restrictions can move forward thanks to a recent appellate court decision.
Chalking is when a parking attendant marks a tire with a line to indicate how long the car has been parked in that spot when there is a time limit.
“You can’t use these unconstitutional systems as a kind of back door to get new funding and money that you wouldn’t otherwise be entitled to,” said attorney Phil Ellison.
This decision could affect thousands of parking tickets issued in Saginaw and thousands of dollars collected by the city.
“If you need more money, you have to go to the taxpayers and ask for more money,” Ellison said.
But instead of going that route, he said the City of Saginaw issued more than 5,000 parking tickets by tagging or chalking tires. Courts have ruled the practice unconstitutional by violating drivers’ rights against illegal searches.
“I could spend half a day talking about the legal intricacies of all this, but essentially at this point it’s a search that requires a search warrant – and if you don’t have a search warrant, you have to fit within an exception and so far.” three out of five exceptions have been thrown out by the courts over the past five years of the litigation,” Ellison said.
He’s one step closer to showing that the city has violated the Fourth Amendment by writing in chalk.
“The court granted class certification, which essentially means anyone who received a ticket they selected and paid for that was backed by fees actually paid by the person may now be eligible for a refund,” said Ellison
He believes the city has raised between $80,000 and $100,000 since April 2014 for issuing these types of tickets. This money would have to be returned to the people if they win their case.
“And again, I want to make it clear that it’s not just tickets. These are only the tickets paid for by those who paid for their parking tickets either on time or with a little delay with this additional fee,” Ellison said.
The city of Saginaw declined to comment on the appeals court’s decision, saying it was not discussing pending litigation. A hearing in the case is scheduled for August 2022.
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