‘Nobody is safe’: Philly officials refuse to fix courtesy-tow problem as class-action lawsuits proceed

How many cars must go missing before Philadelphia officials decide to fix the city’s longtime “courtesy tow” problem?

Apparently, the threshold has not been met.

Ten new victims — including two drivers who never found their cars — have joined a pair of potential class-action lawsuits targeting the city’s dysfunctional system for relocating vehicles due to roadwork, construction, and special events.

But city lawyers have responded in court filings by arguing that the problem is … someone else’s fault.

“[T]hey do not claim an injury that is fairly traceable to the City,” Anne Taylor, chief deputy city solicitor, wrote of the plaintiffs.

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Last week, a federal judge rejected the city’s motions to have the lawsuits tossed and ordered the parties to engage in mediation.

“This is a huge problem and we really want to see some actual change come of this,” said Aarthi Manohar, a lawyer representing 17 plaintiffs in the two cases. They are seeking class-action status on behalf of potentially thousands of victims.

For years, Philadelphians have complained about courtesy tows, but the city has so far refused to take any significant action, or even publicly acknowledge the well-documented problem. A classic Philly Shrug.

The city doesn’t have a reliable system for documenting where the vehicles are towed to — or, in some cases, even who towed them. Drivers have spent weeks or months wandering the streets, looking for cars that could have been dropped off a couple of blocks away or in another neighborhood altogether.

» READ MORE: ‘Borderline illegal’: Courtesy tows remain Philly’s persistent parking nightmare

Other cities, such as Phoenix and Chicago, maintain databases that make it easy for owners to find their towed vehicles.

Some courtesy-tow victims have had their cars dropped off in metered or no-parking zones, then ticketed and towed a second time by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA). Appealing the tickets is often futile, because drivers have no way to prove that they didn’t illegally park their car in the second location.

“It’s kind of like nobody is safe when they park in the city,” Manohar said. “These [temporary no parking] signs can go up anytime or anywhere.”

» READ MORE: How Philly police, parking authority, and tow companies lose cars while ‘courtesy’ towing

The problem seems to be metastasizing as well, with new twists to the typical courtesy-tow plot.

Last month, in South Philadelphia, for example, an owner had his car towed for street paving — three days before the beginning of the no-parking date listed on the temporary sign.

Matthias Wagman, a 31-year-old nurse in Center City, had to pay $808 in December 2022 after his Nissan Maxima was towed from his permitted spot near 15th Street to a metered spot at 13th and South Streets, where he received seven parking tickets from the PPA.

Wagman, who has joined the class-action suit, was denied at every step of the appeals process, all the way up to Common Pleas Court, where Judge Anne Marie Coyle ordered him to pay the full amount because he had no documentation that he hadn’t parked in the metered space.

“I was shot down in probably less than a minute,” he said, adding: “Why would I park in a metered zone that’s just blocks way from my permit parking that I pay for yearly?”

Wagman thinks the lawsuit could finally lead to some reform.

“It was honestly unbelievable,” he said. “I’m just hoping we can solve this parking situation. This is unlawful and downright unconstitutional.”

Last year, the city paid $15,000 each to two courtesy-tow victims in an attempt to resolve one of the lawsuits that is seeking class-action status. But two other plaintiffs in that case rejected the offer, so that case remains open. Then new victims came forward, which prompted the second lawsuit with 15 plaintiffs.

» READ MORE: Philly pays $30K to two ‘courtesy’ tow victims, but class-action suit continues

In court filings, city lawyers have sought to have both lawsuits dismissed by arguing that the city is not at fault.

Taylor, the chief deputy city solicitor, wrote in March that each of the plaintiffs “had a unique experience with regard to the relocation and recovery, or lack thereof, of their vehicle,” and that their allegations “do not establish that all the named Plaintiffs were actually harmed by the City in the manner they claim.”

Spokespeople for Mayor Jim Kenney and the city’s Law Department did not return requests for comment.

In some cases, the city blamed the PPA, noting that it is a state-controlled agency. But the PPA, which is not named in the lawsuits, does not handle most courtesy tows. The relatively small number of cars towed by the PPA can be located in its Find My Towed Car database.

Further, in situations when the PPA ends up ticketing or towing cars that had been courtesy towed by someone else to a metered or illegal space, owners seeking to appeal the ticket have to wrangle with the city’s Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, not the PPA itself.