Revved up for refunds

There are mechanisms that can be put in place to effect court-ordered refunds of traffic fines, estimated at billions of dollars and collected from motorists over a 15-year period through an order that has been declared illegal, according to attorney Gavin Goffe.

Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Goffe said he was “optimistic” that the court-ordered refunds would spur the Government to “change its posture” and “get it done”, though he harboured concerns about record-keeping by both motorists and tax authorities.

“The traffic tickets in this case go back to 2006 and I am not entirely certain that the records are there, whether on the Government’s part or the motorist’s part, to back up the claims,” he said. “The Government has, so far, been resistant to some of the suggestions we have put forward, but now that this judgment has come down, I am hoping that their posture will change and they will be more flexible concerning the mechanisms to get it done.”

The attorney was making reference to yesterday’s landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court in a lawsuit filed by his client, Maurice Housen, over a $5,000 ticket he was issued by cops in July 2021.

The Road Traffic Act (RTA) of 1938, which was in effect at the time, stipulated a penalty of $800 for a speeding violation.

The $5,000 ticket issued to Housen, a software engineer, was in line with increased fines imposed by the Government of the time for traffic offences through the Provisional Collection of Tax Act Order of 2006 and 2007, he argued.

The order was signed by then Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies.

However, Housen contended, through his attorneys Goffe, Jahmar Clarke and Matthew Royal from the law firm Myers, Fletcher and Gordon, that at the time he was ticketed, the fines or fixed penalties for traffic offences were not increased by the legislature or the transport minister as is mandated in Section 116 of the 1938 RTA.

A panel of three Constitutional Court judges agreed, declaring that the Provisional Collection of Tax Road Traffic Order of 2006 and 2007 are “null and void and of no legal effect”.

Ordered the court, “It is declared that motorists who have paid sums stated on traffic tickets issued between June 15, 2006 and November 3, 2021, which exceed the fixed penalty described in the RTA 1938 are entitled to refunds of sums paid in excess on proof of payment.

“It is our judgment that the State should not be permitted to retain the proceeds of money it received without lawful authority.”

Lawyers for Housen and the Government will make suggestions on a framework for the refund during a hearing set for March 12 before a final determination by the same panel of judges.

The Constitutional Court also ruled that the imposition of a fixed penalty that was in excess of the amount stated in the 1938 RTA, as indicated in the ticket issued to Housen, was a breach of his constitutional right to due process as outlined in section 16 (11) of the Jamaican Constitution.

He was awarded $250,000 for the breach.

The court allowed him a 21-day window to pay the $800 fine – as stipulated in the since-repealed RTA of 1938 – for the 2021 speeding violation.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com