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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