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Manibusan urges other ways to make traffic offenders pay up
CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan has commented on a House of Representatives bill to require rental car agencies to confirm that customers have valid driver’s licenses, and make all owners of vehicles, or other persons employing—or otherwise directing the operators of vehicles—financially liable for any fines impose on rental drivers who leave the Commonwealth.
In a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee, Manibusan said the second objective of H.B. 19-53 is “unworkable,” and called on lawmakers to find an alternative to enforcing payment of traffic fines against those who fail to pay. Lawmakers should revisit a driver’s license forfeiture law that was repealed several years ago, he added.
“We are concerned with the impact of the second objective,” Manibusan said. “Although the intent is to deal with visitors and the car rental industry…the amendment…extends beyond them.”
He said the action prohibited by the bill is the failure to appear in court for traffic citation, “but the bill punishes the rental car agency—not the driver—for that action.”
The government generally has the authority to punish a person for acting contrary to law, or failing to act when the law requires them to do so, but the bill, Manibusan said, “goes beyond the government’s authority” by penalizing rental car companies for the acts of a party that are beyond the companies’ control.
Manibusan said lawmakers should consider other alternatives to ensure traffic offenders—and residents and visitors alike—pay their fines. “Requiring a car rental company to pay a bond ensure payment or automatically revoking driver’s licenses if the traffic fine is unpaid should be explored,” he said.
