Federal Constitutional Court strengthens rights of all vehicle owners with ruling
A man was ordered to pay a 30 euro fine for a parking violation. He refused and took the case to the Federal Constitutional Court. The court ruled in his favor – thereby strengthening the rights of all vehicle owners.
The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, as the highest court at federal level, usually deals with serious, often far-reaching and complex legal cases. However, it now had to deal with a parking ticket for illegal parking and a fine of 30 euros. According to the website Lawblog.de, the bone of contention was a vehicle that had been parked in a parking lot in Siegburg near Cologne for longer than permitted. According to the parking disc, the car should have vacated the parking space at 2:30 p.m., but was still there at 5:30 p.m. The public order office set the fine and sent the fine notice to the vehicle owner.
He refused to pay the fine and went to court. There he remained silent about the incident, but was nevertheless sentenced to a fine of 30 euros by the Siegburg District Court and, in the second instance, by the Cologne Higher Regional Court. The vehicle owner, however, proved to be a tough dog and did not shy away from going to the Federal Constitutional Court. He has now been rewarded for his persistence.
According to a report, the judges in Karlsruhe recently ruled in favor of the car owner. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, his conviction violates the prohibition of arbitrariness in the Basic Law, which is why it was declared null and void. The reason: the district court failed to provide evidence that the man had parked the vehicle in the parking lot himself.
Owner is not automatically perpetrator
During the trial, only a photo of the illegally parked car was used as evidence. Because the perpetrator principle also applies to parking violations, it must be clearly proven who parked illegally. If there is no evidence of the offense, the vehicle owner is presumed innocent. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, without solid evidence, it cannot automatically be assumed that the owner is the perpetrator. Now the Siegen District Court must reopen the case. The expensive legal dispute over the 30 euro fine is likely to prove a clear loss for the state.
According to Lawblog.de, the initial error lies with the public order office. Instead of issuing a parking ticket, they should have issued a so-called owner liability notice. This requires vehicle owners to pay a fine of 20 euros if the actual perpetrator cannot be identified before the statute of limitations expires.
As n-tv.de reports, citing a traffic law expert, the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling strengthens the principle of the presumption of innocence in parking violations. However, he points out that the man’s conviction by the district court is the exception rather than the rule and that proceedings are usually discontinued if there is such evidence.
