Kansas City Class Action Challenges Police Dept. Impoundment Fees

The City of Kansas City, Mo., and several members of the Kansas City Board of Commissioners are facing a class action lawsuit challenging the Kansas City Police Department’s alleged violation of consumers’ 14th Amendment rights by failing to provide a way for consumers whose vehicles have been subject to impoundment to get their money back.

Plaintiff Dyanna Black, a resident of Kansas City, filed the class action lawsuit earlier this week in Missouri federal court.

According to the Kansas City towing practices class action lawsuit, Black lawfully parked her vehicle on a city street in Kansas City, but when she returned to her vehicle, she found it was missing. Upon advice from a friend, she used her mobile phone to access the Kansas City Tow Services Division website and confirmed that her vehicle had been towed and impounded.

The City of Kansas City operates the Tow Services Division, the class action lawsuit explains.

Black says she learned that the Tow Services Division stores vehicles impounded by the Kansas City Police at the Tow Lot, which was more than 10 miles away from where she originally parked. She says she was forced to pay $265 to retrieve her vehicle.

According to Black, a police officer authorized the impoundment of the vehicle and allowed the vehicle to be unlocked the interior accessed without her consent.

Further, Black says she did not park illegally. “Her vehicle was parked in compliance with all regulations and ordinances of Kansas City and all applicable state and federal laws,” the Kansas City towing class action lawsuit says.

Black says she went to the Kansas City Municipal Court on May 23, 2016 to contest her citation and won the case on the merits. The judge dismissed the illegal-parking citation, the Kansas City parking violation class action lawsuit alleges.

After the citation was dismissed, Black asked the judge to order that the $265 fee she paid be reimbursed. However, the judge had no power to issue such an order, the Kansas City impoundment fee class action lawsuit says.

“Consequently, Plaintiff has been permanently deprived of $265.00 she had to pay to retrieve her vehicle from the impound facility, even though her vehicle should not have been impounded in the first instance,” the Kansas City class action lawsuit says.

Black claims that there is no available process by which a person who pays money to retrieve their vehicle after it was improperly towed and/or impounded can seek reimbursement.

“Plaintiff’s deprivation is not the result of an unauthorized failure of officials to follow established procedure, whereby an action against officers’ individual malfeasance might be appropriate, but instead, it is a direct result of a deficiency in the established procedure itself: namely, that there is no procedure whatsoever,” the Kansas City impoundment fee class action lawsuit alleges.

Black seeks to represent a proposed Class of individuals who have had (or will have in the future) a vehicle towed and impounded at the direction of the Kansas City Police Department.

The plaintiff is represented by Anthony E. Rothert, Jessie Steffan and Gillian R. Wilcox of ACLU of Missouri Foundation.

The Kansas City Police Department Impoundment Practices Class Action Lawsuit is Dyanna Black v. City of Kansas City, Missouri, et al., Case No. 18-333, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Western Division.