Legal advice on MailboxesFollow

We've been living in this house for 4 years. Last night some drunk babe wiped out our 3rd mailbox. This mailbox was a fortress. The sots truck might just be totaled, but she's ok.

Here's the thing, my husband is freaking out thinking we're gonna get sued. The code enforcement officer of our town had previously mailed us a letter telling us the mailbox was a permanent structure and not allowed in the town's right-of-way (apparently a mailbox on a post in the ground isn't permanent but set it into the ground with some concrete and now it is). In person though, he told us the letter was just a formality to appease the plowman (this would be the plowman responsible for the loss of an earlier mailbox). I think we could argue out of the permanent structure status at this point.

We took great care in setting the mailbox as far off the road as we could yet still make it accessible to the mail lady. We also had reflector strips on it (there are no street lights on my road).

Anyway, the woman was clearly drunk. She never tried to brake. She just went off the road at full ramming speed at our mailbox. Had the mailbox not stopped her the mongo trees would have - they'd have been less forgiving.

I might be worried except that the woman was really drunk. She didn't get any good evidence of the crime scene like we did.


edit - break /= brake

Edited, Dec 1st 2010 9:38pm by Elinda

Did the cops show up while drunky's car was still in your yard? If so I wouldn't worry about being sued by the woman, considering her blood/alcohol level would probably ruin any chance of a case she had.

They're big, and they receive candygrams!

It's very likely that fences aren't allowed along the easement where she's at. There wouldn't be anything unusual about that; it's very common that front yard fences are only allowed to enclose from house to sidewalk. I also wouldn't be surprised if there was an ordinance against "permanent" structures along the easement/right of way. I am a little curious about how they'd expect you to install your mailbox in those circumstances. Just sink a post with no concrete? It sounds more like an ordinance against those brick pillar style affairs but I'm not a code officer in Maine so what do I know?

Either way, I don't know if there's even reason to suspect that the driver would be aware of this or try to pursue it.

I was going to ask the same thing, but then I was too lazy to Google it and I didn't feel like looking stupid.

Also, they're only pawns in the game of life.

Have you considered switching to a floor-safe type mailbox? People won't be able to run into it unless the have a snowplow attached, unless you place it just below ground level.

We're considering a PO Box.

After the last mailbox was broke off its post we just set it into a garbage can filled sand until we could get a permanent one back into the ground. That worked surprisingly well.

You could turn the section of the shoulder in front of your house into a moat.

Bumper lanes could have prevented this.

Or bumper cars!

Install a decoy mailbox to lure the vehicle away from the real one. Don't forget to cover it in mailbox scent.

Why don't you move out of hickville and join the rest of civilization.

Ah, it'll probably be fine. Pretty sure a mailbox sunk in concrete is a permanent structure, though. I don't know how the ordinance defines the term, but it'd definitely qualify as a fixture.