#Court restores man’s driving privileges after mistaken identity flub

A man’s New York driver’s license was wrongfully revoked 24 years after he was convicted for a driving violation that he didn’t know about — all thanks to a state clerical error — in a “situation almost worthy of Kafka,” an appellate court said, citing the existentialist author as it overturned the suspension.

Kenneth Sonders’ license was suspended on Feb. 3, 1995 — after he failed to answer a series of summonses sent to him in 1994 for allegedly driving without car insurance.

But it wasn’t until Aug. 7, 2019, that the New York DMV told him it was revoking his driving privileges for a year, an appellate decision from Thursday explained.

In his case against the state agency, Sonders claimed that the August suspension notice was “the first notice he received of the summonses,” according to the Appellate Division, First Department’s decision.

It turns out the man never received the four summonses back in 1994 likely because when the DMV employee entered the violations into the agency database his name was input as “Sanders” rather than “Sonders,” the ruling said.

Since Sonders claims to never have received the notices he wasn’t able to fight his case or pay the fines at the time and a default conviction was entered against him, the court papers say.

“Petitioner is ‘caught in a situation almost worthy of Kafka’ as the actions of respondent ‘produce a truly irrational result,’” reads the unanimous ruling first reported by Law.com.

“Imposition of the required penalty 24 years after the fact, which DMV admits was attributable to a potential data-entry error, while continuing to renew petitioner’s license without apprising him of any problem, is the quintessence of an arbitrary and capricious action,” the decision continued.

Franz Kafka was fiction author born in what’s now the Czech Republic, whose works features isolated characters facing absurd and alienating situations, often imposed on them by authority figures.

Sonders has since paid the fines he owed and the suspension was stayed while he fought his appeal, his lawyer Arnold DiJoseph told The Post.

DiJoseph said that the whole situation came about when his client was trying to transfer his drivers license to New Jersey.

The Garden State DMV told Sonders he couldn’t get licensed there until he cleared up an outstanding violation in New York, prompting Sonders to alert the Empire State DMV of the issue that they didn’t seem to be aware of prior, as they continued to renew his license through the years.

“It’s patently absurd,” DiJoseph said. “He paid the fines. Did they really have to enforce it and suspend his license 24 years later?”

The New York Attorney General’s office, who represented the DMV in the case, deferred comment to the agency.

“The DMV acknowledges the court’s decision in the matter and has no further comment,” a rep said.