Well, I spoke with an attorney today and we looked up
the *state* statute dealing with "junked" motor
vehicles. We found something that might be a
problem...
Apparently, the bulk of the text from the city
ordinance was taken word-for-word from the state law
(Vernon's Civil Statutes) EXCEPT for the definition of
"junked motor vehicle". The *state* version specifies
that the vehicle must (1) be "operable", AND (2) have
either a valid inspection or registration certificate,
AND (3) not disassembled...for it to be legal.
The way the CITY statute reads (very clearly) is that
if it is operable, it require inspection or
registration and does not fit their definition of
"junked motor vehicle".
This is confusing, at best. I figure if it's the City
charging me with this, they should be required to
apply their poorly-written ordinance to me and not try
to hit me with the state law (otherwise, why bother
having a city ordinance? How would a citizen know to
look at the state law when they city cites only their
city ordinance chapter/verse?)...
I don't know what they're going to try to pull...it
doesn't really seem right that they're trying to cite
me under the city ordinance but using the state law's
definition of "junked motor vehicle". Any ideas???
I know they can pretty much do whatever they want to
without respect to what's right or wrong. It's
clearly wrong to misapply a law in a situation it
clearly was not meant to address and they're doing
that anyway. If they persist, they will have a large
chunk of vehicular sh@# sitting outside their
respective residences (legally parked), a very severe
PR battle, and my antique-vehicle-registered Mustang
in my driveway which they can't touch. Looks pretty
much no-win for them to me.
Again, thanks for all the help and ideas so far...with
any luck at all, the City Attorney will tell them to
lay off and it won't be an issue. If I get the
antique plates, they can't touch me for 5 years and by
that time it will be considered an "antique vehicle"
by the city's standards.
Funny sidenote...the CITY does not recognize the
vehicle as an antique until it is 35 years old under
their own ordinance. The STATE recognizes it as
antique when it is 25 years old. If they try to use
the state's definition of "junked", they should also
use the state's definition of "antique". Right?
T. Bloxom
1985 M1009 CUCV
1968 Mustang
19?? P.O.S. (to be determined)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Sep 02 2001 - 11:15:41 PDT