Com. v. Minicost Car Rental, Inc.

Citation242 N.E.2d 411,354 Mass. 746
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH v. MINICOST CAR RENTAL, INC.
Decision Date02 December 1968
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Robert J. Annese, Boston, for defendant.

James M. Kickham, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.

Before WILKINS, C.J., and WHITTEMORE, CUTTER, KIRK, SPIEGEL and REARDON, JJ.

WILKINS, Chief Justice.

This complaint in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston comes here on the defendant's exceptions from the Superior Court, where it was heard by a judge sitting without jury.

The complaint alleges, and the judge fould, that a motor vehicle registered to the defendant was double parked in violation of the parking rules and regulations of the city of Boston. A fine of $10 was imposed. The testimony may be summarized as follows: On September 20, 1967, a police officer observed a sedan double parked in front of 717 Boylston Street from 12:50 P.M. to 1 P.M. and placed a 'parking ticket' for this violation on the windshield. He made no effort to identify the operator or to notify the registered owner. The defendant, having a usual place of business in Cambridge, rented automobiles throughout the Commonwealth. Its vehicles have identifying insignia on the rear windows. On September 19, 1967, the sedan was rented to one Saradia of Everett. He returned it on September 22, 1967, without mentioning the parking ticket. The defendant first learned of the violation on January 24, 1968, when it received the summons.

At the close of the evidence, the defendant's motion to dismiss, 'alleging infringement of rights guaranteed it under both the United States and Massachusetts State Constitutions,' was denied, and the defendant excepted.

The precise parking regulation violated does not appear in the record, as it should. See, for example, Commonwealth v. Dobbins, 344 Mass. 272, 182 N.E.2d 123. We do not take judicial notice of it. Finlay v. Eastern Racing Ass'n. Inc., 308 Mass. 20, 26--27, 30 N.E.2d 859; Commonwealth v. Berney, 353 Mass. 571, 572, a 233 N.E.2d 739. The omission places a handicap upon appellate judicial consideration. Examination of the briefs, however, shows that the parties are in agreement as to the regulation found to have been violated and quote its wording, which for the sake of clarity, we shall use in this opinion.

Article IV, § 1, of the city of Boston Traffic Rules and Regulations provides in material part: 'No person shall allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in his name to stop, stand or park in any street, way highway, road or parkway under the control of the city in violation of any of the rules and regulations of the Traffic and Parking Commission * * *.' The authorization for the foregoing is St. 1929, c. 263, as amended. Also it is provided in G.L. c. 90, § 20C (as amended through St. 1966, c. 119), that 'it shall be the duty of every police officer who takes cognizance of a violation of any provision of any rule, regulation, order, ordinance or by-law regulating the parking of motor vehicles established for their respective city or town, forthwith to give the offender a notice * * *.'

The defendant's contentions, based upon the absence of any requirement of knowledge on the part of the owner of the offending vehicle who was not the operator at the time of the violation, are that there was a denial of due process and of the equal protection of the laws.

The defendant does not trouble to cite or explain Commonwealth v. Ober, 286 Mass. 25, 189 N.E. 601, where there is but one factual distinction from the case before us. In the Ober case it does not appear who made the improper parking. In the case at bar the improper parking was by one who rented the automobile from the defendant. This, however, is a distinction without importance. As was pointed out in the Ober case, at page 32, at page 603 of 189 N.E., 'The inconvenience of keeping watch over parked vehicles to ascertain who in fact operates them would be impracticable, if not impossible, at a time when many vehicles are parked. * * * (T)he rules and rugulations of the Boston Traffic Commission * * * were framed and intended to cover and make punishable any violation * * * by...

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18 cases
  • Com. v. Beneficial Finance Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • 4 Noviembre 1971
    ...wide enough to allow raft to pass). Later cases are Commonwealth v. Ober, 286 Mass. 25, 189 N.E. 601, and Commonwealth v. Minicost Car Rental, Inc., 354 Mass. 746, 242 N.E.2d 411, where owners of automobiles were held liable for violations of parking regulations, even though the violations ......
  • Commonwealth v. Kelly
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • 30 Enero 2020
    ...for thirty days and a $50 fine, [were] relatively small" (quotation omitted). Similarly, in Commonwealth v. Minicost Car Rental, Inc., 354 Mass. 746, 748, 242 N.E.2d 411 (1968), we held that violation of a parking regulation was a strict liability offense because "the penalty of a fine not ......
  • Com. v. Crosscup
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • 17 Diciembre 1975
    ...and back of the interpretative question was the constitutional doubt. On the other hand, we said in Commonwealth v. Minicost Car Rental, Inc., 354 Mass. 746, 242 N.E.2d 411 (1968), that, in view of the minor penalty there exacted and the absence of damage to an offender's reputation upon co......
  • Com. v. Pauley
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • 2 Julio 1975
    ...'public welfare' offense (see Commonwealth v. Graustein & Co., 209 Mass. 38, 42--43, 95 N.E. 97 (1911); Commonwealth v. Minicost Car Rental, Inc., 354 Mass. 746, 242 N.E.2d 411 (1968); United States v. Dotterweich, 320 U.S. 277, 280--281, 64 S.Ct. 134, 88 L.Ed. 48 (1943); Morissette v. Unit......
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