Court Opinion

ID: 9654159
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:07:58.900925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:06.306657
License: Public Domain

*9WILLIS, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the opinion, but I write specially to underscore what I perceive to be a major flaw in section 474.660(a)(1) of the Minneapolis ordinance at issue. That subdivision provides the first of two methods by which the owner or lessee of a motor vehicle may rebut the presumption that he or she was the driver of the vehicle when it ran a red light.
Section 474.660(a)(1) provides that the presumption can be rebutted if the owner or lessee “[pjrovides a sworn affidavit by United States mail to the city or agency that he or she was not the owner or lessee of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation and provides the name and current address of the person operating the motor vehicle at the time of the violation.” As our opinion notes, “[t]he meaning of section 474.660(a)(1) is particularly elusive,” and we also note the district court’s comment that “[t]his provision makes little sense.” The city argued before this court that section 474.660 is an administrative directive requiring the dismissal of a citation if the owner of a vehicle shows that he was not the driver at the time of the violation. But that is not what section 474.660(a)(1) says. The requirement is not the submission of an affidavit that the owner or lessee of the vehicle was not the driver at the time of the violation but rather an affidavit that the owner or lessee was not the owner or lessee of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation and submission of the “current address of the person operating the motor vehicle at the time of the violation.” This creates an impossible burden. If the affiant was neither the owner nor the lessee of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation, it is difficult to imagine circumstances in which the affiant would know the identity of the person who was operating the vehicle at the time of the violation. I would go the district court one better: The provision makes no sense.