North Carolina high court puts hold on Chapel Hill's towing order

The North Carolina. Supreme Court put a hold on Chapel Hill’s towing order on Tuesday after a towing company appealed that ordinance and one that fine drivers for using cell phones.

The town had by now agreed to put off enforcement of its cell-phone ban while the appeal is pending, according to an appeal that towing company owner George King filed.

The towing ordinance would require a tow-truck driver to report a vehicle’s license tag number, location and description before towing it. It also sets minimum numbers of warning signs that a property owner have to post in order to begin towing other people vehicles.

The Court of appeal upheld the 2 ordinances on June 4. A lower-court judge had ruled them invalid after King sued. The Court of Appeals said, among other things, that King did not have standing to sue because he had not been cited for violate either ordinance.

King’s attorney, Thomas Stark, disputed that logic on Tuesday. Those of us that wish to be in conformity with the law are put in a quandary, he said in an interview. What ought to happen in the end is that the government should do a statewide law, and it should be clear and simple, and that would get the cities and towns out of micromanaging, he said.