A working single mother and homeowner in the town of Lantana, Florida has faced daily $250 fines for over a year simply because one of the four cars that belong to her other members of her family end up parking slightly on the grass in her front yard. Sandy Martinez owns her home, and lives there with her son, daughter, and sister who all have full-time jobs that require them to have their own vehicles.
Her home is on a corner lot at a four-way intersection, so street parking isn’t an option. She’s liable to be fined if anyone parks in a way that impedes the sidewalk, and parking in the swell leaves the family’s cars vulnerable to collisions, so the most logical thing is to park with two tires on the grass. According to New York Post, “After the first citation, Martinez tried to arrange a visit with a code-enforcement officer to show she had corrected the violation. But those efforts proved fruitless.”
Martinez now faces over $160,000 in city issued fines for the crime of parking with two wheels on her lawn that she owns, as well as for having cracks in the driveway, and damage done to her fence by a storm.
The fines have left her unable to even sell her home
Due to the impact of the massive fines issued to her property for these asinine, minute concerns, Martinez says it has destroyed the equity she had built up in her home, and she is now unable to even sell the property. The Institute for Justice has represented Martinez in court for years trying to get the egregious fines reduced under Florida’s Excessive Fines Clause, but the Florida Supreme Court recently refused to hear her case. Institute of Justice senior attorney Ari Bargil told CBS News, “Six-figure fines for parking on your own property are shocking. The court’s refusal to hear Sandy’s case is a disservice to all Floridians.”
Florida’s homestead protection shields Martinez’s home from foreclosure, but she is left without many options following the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to let the six-figure fine stand. Since the state court system reached this ruling, her only option would be to try again in federal court.
