news-record.com

Let's say you owe money for dozens of parking tickets stuffed in your glove box. They've been sitting there for more than a year. Do you have to pay them, or can you get off scot-free?

A final answer to that question, which surfaced in a Guilford County lawsuit, could cost cities across the state millions of dollars in parking fines that today get paid when towns take scofflaws to court.

And it's not just unpaid parking ticket revenue — $2 million in Greensboro — at risk. Cities stand to lose money they would otherwise collect in court from unpaid noise violations, building and zoning violations, even water restriction violations.

Experts say the implications of the case are broad.

If Greensboro loses at the appeals level, the result would bind cities across North Carolina, said Jim Drennan, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Government.

"That would become the law," he said, adding that cities across the state are likely watching the case.

There have been other disputes involving statutes of limitations, but none that closely parallel this one, Drennan said.

Penalty vs. debt

The issue came about this summer as the city of Greensboro sued Kevin Morse, a lawyer with more than $2,300 in unpaid tickets from 2004 and early 2005. Morse and his lawyer argued that the city waited too long to sue him.

They based their defense on state laws and court cases that say unless the city sets a time frame to sue when it writes its laws for parking fines, then the deadline is one year from the date it adds a late fee and notifies the credit bureaus. Like many cities, Greensboro did not set that deadline.

In Greensboro, that means from the date a ticket is received on a car, the city would have one year and three months in which to sue. But most people don't accrue so many fines in that time period that it's worthwhile for the city to spend money on a lawsuit.

An attorney for the city argued in court that while a parking ticket might be a penalty, it is also a debt owed in the form of an "implied" contract.

Under another state law, the city has up to three years in which it can sue someone for not paying a debt.

District court Judge Margaret Sharpe agreed with Morse's logic. She said that she "didn't follow" the city's argument about debts and contracts.

"I said that wasn't pertinent," Sharpe told the News & Record last month. She declined to comment further because the city said it would appeal the case to the N.C. Court of Appeals.

Regardless of what side wins on the appeal, the loser can ask the N.C. Supreme Court to hear the case.

Assistant City Attorney Anargiros "Jerry" Kontos declined to comment on the case, saying it's a pending legal matter. The city consulted with the UNC School of Government before making its case.

How they piled up

This isn't the first time the city of Greensboro has squared off against Morse over fines. The attorney was sued in 2002 for another batch of unpaid tickets totaling just under $2,000.

The case was dropped when he paid a settlement of $1,600, according to a copy of a bank check kept by the city. This time, the city refused to negotiate, though Morse indicated he was willing to settle for less than the full amount he owed.

He said the city was less than receptive and even harsh in dealing with him. He said he was upset about the way the city tries to collect money from people — namely, he claims, by intimidation. The city says it treats people courteously.

"It was the manner in which they come after you," Morse said. "It's very upsetting. ... I just wanted some small concession from them to have a moral victory of some kind."

Why didn't he pay the tickets when he first got them?

"At the time I amassed this group of parking tickets my office was downtown," he said, explaining that he let his secretary use the space he was provided for the office. "Paying parking tickets wasn't something high on my agenda at the time."

Enforcement

The resulting court ruling could now threaten back fines across North Carolina. Parking fines — along with other noncriminal fines such as building or fire code violations — fall under the same law, making the case important for cities everywhere with laws written the same way as Greensboro.

The option at that point, said Andrew Romanet, an attorney with the N.C. League of Municipalities, would be to approach the General Assembly to change the law governing the fines.

The money at stake from parking fines alone is enough to cause cities' discomfort.

Four years ago, according to a News & Record investigation at the time, the city was owed less than $1 million for unpaid tickets. Today, that number has doubled to just more than $2 million.

Other cities have a similarly high amount of unpaid fines. Durham has about $2.2 million in unpaid tickets due since 2000, and Raleigh's unpaid balance is close to $3 million for tickets issued over the same time, according to officials in both cities. Charlotte is owed nearly $1.4 million for unpaid fines over the past three years.

Where those places differ is in the tools available for enforcing ticket collections.

Aside from suing a parking ticket scofflaw in court, Greensboro has only one recourse for getting its money: taking it from a state tax refund each spring. But not everyone gets a refund, and some refunds aren't large enough to cover the debt.

Also, unlike other cities, such as Charlotte and Raleigh, no local ordinances allow the city to put a "boot" — the metal device that locks on a wheel and prevents a vehicle from moving — on cars until long-overdue tickets are paid.

Still, the tax-refund intercepts have retrieved more than a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid fines since the city began using the program in 2005.

As for Morse, parking tickets are fewer now that he works near Guilford College, and the fines he's received he pays on time.

"I may look like I'm just some a------ who doesn't want to pay his parking tickets," the attorney said. "But they're a bunch of bullies down there (in the city collections department). And I don't like bullies. I never have."

Staff writer Jason Hardin contributed.

Contact the News & Record at 373-7000.