Friday, January 11, 2013

Corporations are Not “People” for Purposes of the Carpool Lane

Corporations are Not “People” for Purposes of the Carpool Lane

            According to a story in today’s ABA Weekly News Journal, a recent effort to qualify to use a carpool lane in California on the basis that a corporation constituted the passenger has been rejected.
The published story provides in part:
 
Jonathan Frieman handed a California Highway Patrol officer incorporation papers      from the passenger seat in October, when he was pulled over for the apparent vehicle-occupancy violation, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. But the officer was not convinced that a corporate passenger was present in Frieman's vehicle and told the 56-year-old San Rafael resident he would have to tell it to the judge.
Despite the assistance of an attorney, who argued on Frieman's behalf at a Monday hearing that freeway signs requiring "2 or more persons" in car pool lanes are unconstitutionally vague, a Marin County Superior Court judge wasn't convinced either.
Rejecting the argument by attorney Ford Greene, traffic referee Frank Drago said the underlying purpose of the law shows why a corporation, even if a person, is not a passenger.
"Common sense says carrying a sheath of papers in the front seat does not relieve traffic congestion," Drago told Frieman. "And so I'm finding you guilty."

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