She peered into the envelope she had just ripped open. The outside was stamped “URGENT”.
Inside the envelope was an unbelievable fine. $100,000! She felt her heart start to race as she picked up her phone to call the person necessary. She soon found out that it was because of a “parking violation”. She couldn’t believe it.
Florida definitely wasn’t the greatest place on earth, at least not nowadays. But it was where she lived.
Sandy Martinez felt that it was still her home and she was happy for the most part. Even if she lived in a small house with a big family. But there were two problems she couldn’t ignore.
Sandy had to take every paycheck she earned and split it between all of her expenses. The biggest of all being the house. But it still felt like a balancing act of payments.
The second problem was the housing market in Florida. With the costs of housing, a lot of people struggled to afford properties. This meant that she lived with her three daughters in a tiny home n the suburbs. But the biggest problem by far was the driveway.
Two of her daughters were working adults. One of them was even working on her license and had an old car that was rough around the edges.
That meant that there were 4 cars in their driveway. Which was a problem given how small it was. It seemed that the local government would also take issue.
Two of the tires on two of the cars would normally sit on the lawn just past the paving. Probably only being around 1 foot on either side spilling out.
Sandy knew that was why things were the way they were. She didn’t understand why the fine was so high though. But this would only be the beginning of this nightmare.
Now an inspector would come to their driveway to make sure they they had been parking how they should have.
Sandy couldn’t believe it. She held her coffee tightly with a look of pure anger on her face. The inspector never showed. If only he came to see it was fine. But even after pestering no one ever came out.
Lanatana’s laws specifically say “All off-street parking spaces, including driveways but not including parking spaces located in swale areas as permitted by section 17-34, shall be asphalt, concrete or block and shall be hard surfaced and in good repair in compliance with town codes.”
But what they didn’t understand was they her driveway couldn’t go on forever.
They had no idea that they were even doing anything wrong. They were unaware to the city’s schemes until they got even more fines.
She got a fine for something as petty as a crack in her pavement. The other fine was for her fence being damaged. How was this reasonable? She decided she had no choice but to play along.
She’d rather be patient and wait for them to slip up. She would fix all of the things they fined her for when she could but how could they send her a fine because of it?
She still decided to pay the fines and to pay a person with a trade-skill to fix the problems. But she had no idea that this was just the beginning of her war with the government.
A couple of weeks later, she woke up to another letter. She sat at her table and opened it, bawling furious tears.
She was completely shell shocked. Without her knowing, the city had been charging her $250 a day in fines for the driveway incident – they didn’t even send the inspector they had previously promised!
For 17 years she had been living in that house, parking however the family could, and all of a sudden, the government wanted to dump this catastrophic fine on them. She picked up the phone with shaking hands and called the only number she could think of.
There was no way she was going to let them get away with this. Who did they think they were?
The Institute for Justice had been in the news more than once for helping people who were put in unfair, catastrophic situations by big government. As she explained the situation, she could hear that even the lawyer on the other end of the phone was flabbergasted.
It was time to take Lantana’s government to court.
Sandy sat at the table with her lawyer, already wanting to scream at the top of her lungs.
The opposition skirted around the fact she had left messages for an inspector, but they never sent one. And now, their next demand left her feeling like her rising blood pressure was heading towards a heart attack.
They were going to charge her an extra $65,000 in fines for the cracked driveway and broken fence!
But she had already paid the first fine and fixed them immediately after – with receipt and photo proof. This wasn’t just unfair; it was an abuse of power and imposing financial death. She felt hot tears trickle down her cheeks.
Thankfully, the lawyer wasn’t going to give up.
After days of testimony, Nicole Dritz, the town’s development services director, sat across the table and slid over a folded piece of paper. It was an offer to settle. But when Sandy looked at it, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
They still wanted her to pay!
The reduction from a crippling $165,000 to $25,000 was like a punch in the face. To them it was “more than fair.” Sandy didn’t have to look at her lawyer for advice. She stared right into the eyes of the insufferable woman across from her … and ripped up the piece of paper.
“Section 6-30 of the Code of Ordinances” could stuff it where the sun didn’t shine.
Sandy was ready to take it to the next phase. Her and her lawyer called in every news outlet they could think of. They also posted on every social media channel and asked people to share her story. When the news vans appeared, she was ready.
She stood in front of her house, explaining the entire situation from the first fine to the insulting “settlement.”
There was no way she was going to give up fighting. They wouldn’t get a single penny out of her no matter what. And she would make sure they admitted they were wrong no matter how long it took.
For Sandy, this was a matter of principle. If people can’t be free to manage their property and practice their affairs free from government control – especially when they’re not harming anyone, then what does that say about our society?
Sandy buckled up, fully prepared to teach her city a valuable lesson.
Sandy’s lawyer advised her to sue the state for a pretty penny. She could have easily sued them for triple that fine they handed her but Sandy had a different idea for revenge in mind.
First she needed to make it public. “I’ve been living here for 17 years now and I’m being fined over $160,000 for parking on my own property,” she said at the press conference in front of her house.
Sandy also stated that she sent “voicemail after voicemail” to the town asking them to send an inspector but she got tired of “playing phone tag”.
However, the city refused to acknowledge this as evidence. So Sandy devised a brilliant plan. All she needed was the help of her trusted lawyer.
After Sandy reached news stations all around America, it was time to take her case to the court. With the help of her lawyer, she managed to fish a record of her phone calls and supply it as evidence.
She was seeking a declaratory judgment from the court that supported her lawsuit, claiming that the fines imposed on her are unconstitutional. But what did that mean?
Sandy wanted the city to not only admit they were wrong but she also wanted their behavior to ultimately become illegal so as they couldn’t threaten anyone else with such severe and unjust fines and treatment.
She wanted to silence them completely but going public wasn’t as easy as she thought.
As soon as Sandy spoke out and her face was plastered across the nation, she received plenty of support and encouragement.
Many people congratulated her for taking a stand against such an unreasonable code of law. However, not everyone agreed with her point of view.
Some people sided with the city. Their reason was that if the law didn’t exist, the city would surely begin to look less favorable.
People stated that having four cars in a smaller driveway can be an eyesore at the best of times and it’s better to keep an area looking tidy and looked after so that its economy will grow.
Sandy is still going through the lawsuit and is waiting to hear what the court’s decide. So far however, things have been looking good and it looks like Sandy may get her revenge after all.
They say the best revenge is served cold. That’s exactly what Sandy did as she went directly to a superior power to overrule her own city’s decision. What a boss!
