BANKRUPTCY - EFFECT OF DISCHARGE - SUSPENSION OF DRIVER'S LICENSE FOR NON-PAYMENT OF JUDGMENT AS CONFLICTING WITH THE BANKRUPTCY ACT

Authors

Walter Muller, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Under section 94-b of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law, as amended in 1936 and 1939, if a judgment entered against a driver for 'damages for injury to person or property remains unpaid for fifteen days, the clerk of the court where the judgment was entered must (but only upon written demand of the judgment creditor) forward a copy thereof to the commissioner of motor vehicles, whose duty it then becomes to suspend the driving license of such judgment debtor; further, section 94-c provides (a) that such suspension shall continue for such part of three years as the judgment remains unsatisfied, and a discharge in bankruptcy is explicitly stated not to be such satisfaction as is required under the statute; provided, however, that the judgment creditor may give his consent that the debtor be allowed the return of his license for six months and thereafter until the consent be withdrawn, and (b) in any event, proof of future ability to respond in damages must be shown before the license will ever be returned. Plaintiff, a judgment debtor who had since been adjudicated bankrupt, brought an action to enjoin the commissioner from suspending his chauffeur's license. Held, in dismissing the complaint, the statute is not violative of the Fourteenth Amendment nor does it impair the effect of a discharge under section 17 of the Bankruptcy Act, Reitz v. Mealey, (D. C. N. Y. 1940) 34 F. Supp. 532.

Recommended Citation

Walter Muller, BANKRUPTCY - EFFECT OF DISCHARGE - SUSPENSION OF DRIVER'S LICENSE FOR NON-PAYMENT OF JUDGMENT AS CONFLICTING WITH THE BANKRUPTCY ACT, 39 Mich. L. Rev. 645 (1941).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol39/iss4/12