Hi!

You all prolly remember when my old boat was hit by a drunk driver in late
July of 2003. As the story goes the insurance company paid us off for the
boat, left it with us, and I removed the outboard and then sold the boat for
something like $400 in August of '03 This was three years ago. All I
remember was that I gave the guy a bill of sale and that he was from
Londonderry NH. The name escapes us. He went away happy and that was the
last we've seen or heard of him and the boat.

Anyway.... about three weeks ago...... this same boat and trailer "appeared"
abandoned in the middle of a road in nearby Chester NH. So far thier
"minimal" investigation has not turned up the last owner and since the boat
and trailer was "wrecked" when I sold them I merely sold it with an "as is"
bill of sale. Our birthdays were in August, we sold it in August, so we
just let the registration expire and registered the repalcement boat and
trailer "new" as it were. No paper trail with DMV.

Anyway.... for the lack of being able to find the true perpitrator who
abandoned this critter in Chester NH, it appears that the towing company
aided by the Chester Police *may* try to invoke this statute to use us as
the scapegoats for this: ie to extort money for towing and storage and
disposal.

RSA 262:40-c Abandoning a Vehicle; Penalty. - No person shall abandon a
motor vehicle, registered or unregistered, on any way or on any property
other than his or her own without the permission of the owner or lessee of
said property or, in the case of public property, of the police department
having jurisdiction over the property. For the purposes of this section, a
vehicle shall be considered abandoned if it has been left for more than 24
hours without the appropriate permission being given. The last owner of
record of a motor vehicle found abandoned, as shown by the files of the
department, shall be deemed prima facie to have been the owner of such motor
vehicle at the time it was abandoned and to have been the person who
abandoned the motor vehicle or caused or procured its abandonment. Any
person who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a
violation and shall be subject to a fine of not less than $100 and not more
than $500, and may be subject to the loss of driver's license and
registration as provided in RSA 263:56 and RSA 261:179. The court may assess
costs of abandoning a vehicle, including but not limited to, towing and
storage costs, against any person convicted of abandoning a vehicle in
violation of this section, and the director shall suspend the driver's
license of any person who has not paid such costs.
Source. 1989, 253:3. 2003, 119:2, eff. Aug. 8, 2003.

My first thought is that since we were over 1000 miles away when it was
abandoned, and since three years had passed since the boat wat totaled, 2
years since we moved..... that while there seems to be a prima facia case to
hang us with it..... that the first prereqwuisite, that he who swears out
the complaint has *good faith* to believe we were somehow responsible for
this outrage is sorely lacking. One does not swear out a complaint with
good faith they can "win" , but rather that a crime was commited and the
person charged at least remotely had something to do with it.

Also... to niggle... it appears the "vehicle" in question was not
abandoned for the required 24 hours by the above statute. Since it was left
in the middle of the road and was a hazzard to traffic, it was towed
immediately. While that's all well, good, and proper, it does seem to
nullify the aplicability of the statute. I mean, if they want to apply the
letter of the law, it cuts both ways - no?

In addition to advice..... if any of you with a long rec.boats archive...
can
PLEASE go back to August of 2003 and see what I posted regarding my *final
disposal* of the boat... it may be evidence.

-W