The battle between a Wellington lawyer and Wellington City Council over parking infringement notices continued at the Court of Appeal today.
Senior solicitor Angela Beazer was ticketed for failing to display a current registration sticker on her car. She noticed an error in a reminder notice that she said rendered the fine void.
Ms Beazer was deemed to have committed an offence under Section 243 of the Land Transport Act, which she said was not yet law, but part of legislation still before Parliament.
It was passed and made into law in June 2009 -- she was fined in July 2008.
She took an appeal to the High Court after a District Court decision waived the fine but ordered her to pay court costs. The High Court dismissed the appeal last September.
Appearing for herself today, Ms Beazer sought a declaration that it was an offence to impose liability under a section not yet in place. She told the Court of Appeal the issue "should not be condoned.
"It's a serious mistake of law. It's a serious mistake that was repeated thousands of times." If the court continued to condone the issue, it could happen again, she said.
Ms Beazer told the court her ticket was one of 11,688 issued to vehicle owners with the disputed text. And the council continued to issue the notices even after she brought the error to its attention in August 2008.
Only after her case had been through the District Court and was up for hearing before the High Court did the council stop issuing the erroneous parking notices, she said.
Ms Beazer told the court the issue was of great public importance and asked "where are the courts going to draw the line?"
For the council, Stephen Quinn, QC, told the court that the error had been rectified and that such infringement notices were also covered by another piece of legislation.
"It was a technical error," he said.
The Court of Appeal reserved its decision. Wellington City Council declined comment on the case.