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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Brian France Submits Residence Documents In Mayfield Case
Brian France has submitted a copy of his Florida driver’s license, two Florida vehicle registrations, a copy of his voting record in Florida...
Bob Pockrass  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted December 02, 2009   Charlotte, NC
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France says changes are coming to the Chase for the Sprint Cup. (Photo: Getty Images)

NASCAR Chairman Brian France has submitted a copy of his Florida driver’s license, two Florida vehicle registrations, a copy of his voting record in Florida and a copy of his 2008 federal tax return in an effort to prove to the U.S. District Court that his primary state citizenship is in Florida.

The documents were submitted Tuesday in response to a court filing on behalf of suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield that claims that France misrepresented his primary residence to have the suspended driver’s lawsuit moved to federal court and delay an injunction hearing. The documents are heavily edited to just show that France lived in Daytona Beach.

The location of France’s primary residence became an issue in the lawsuit filed by Mayfield, who was suspended by NASCAR for a May 1 drug test that NASCAR says was positive for methamphetamines. Mayfield contends that the positive finding resulted from his taking a prescription drug to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and an over-the-counter allergy medicine. He also questions the procedures NASCAR used in determining the results.

The original lawsuit was filed in North Carolina state courts in May but was moved to federal courts at the request of NASCAR the day before a preliminary injunction hearing in state court. In that request, France said that while he owns a home in North Carolina, he considers his home in Florida his primary residence. Four days earlier in a claim filed in North Carolina Superior Court involving his former in-laws who were living in a house he owns in North Carolina, France said he was a citizen of both Florida and North Carolina but doesn’t indicate which is his primary residence.

Mayfield claims in the filing that France can’t consider himself a resident of North Carolina for that case to be heard in state court and then not be a resident of North Carolina in order to have the Mayfield case heard in federal court. One of the impacts of moving the case to federal court was that the preliminary injunction hearing was delayed by a month. A state court can have jurisdiction in claims where both a plaintiff and a defendant are from the same state.

“Mr. France has lived his entire life in Florida and has always intended to have Florida as his permanent residence,” France’s attorney states in the brief filed Tuesday. “The combination of all of these factors [in the documents] clearly demonstrates that Mr. France was domiciled in Florida when he filed his affidavit in this case.”

The attorneys also noted that the courts in the past have determined that although a person may have more than one residence, he may only have one "domicile" for the purposes of determining residency for jurisdictional purposes. Once domicile has been established in a certain state, mere absence from the state is insufficient to change one’s domicile, the attorneys state.

If the judge in the case concludes that France’s domicile is North Carolina, he could order the case to be returned to state court.

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Bob Pockrass

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