Crawford v. City of Cambridge

Perhaps it ought not to come as a surprise that, in the era of the internal combustion engine, a parking violator and a municipality try to reenact the story of David and Goliath.

On November 15, 1984, a Thursday, at about 9:30 p.m., Peter Crawford parked his automobile on Winthrop Street, Cambridge, in a loading zone. Later that night he received a ten-dollar parking ticket. Crawford protested that the loading zone was improperly marked and that he had committed no violation, a claim he pressed, in accordance with G. L. c. 90, § 20A V2, before the parking clerk of Cambridge. The parking clerk…