SEATTLE – The City of Seattle has been ordered to pay some 4,000 people refunds for giving them parking tickets on legal holidays.

The lawsuit was filed in 2006 by a Bellevue woman who got a ticket for failing to feed the meter on New Year's Eve 2004.

A statement from the Seattle law firm of Bendich, Stobaugh and Strong says at the time the woman was ticketed, the city's traffic code specified that parking was free on legal holidays, which included the day before a Saturday holiday, the day after a Sunday holiday, and the day after Thanksgiving. But, attorneys say the City issued thousands of parking tickets to people who failed to pay on those days.

New Year's Day 2005 fell on a Saturday, making the day before a holiday under the code.

Under the ruling, the refunds, which range from around $22 to around $75, will be made to people whose cars were unlawfully ticketed or impounded. The checks will go out October 29.

The City's current parking holidays are New Years Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, President's Day, Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and the Monday following any of these holidays that fall on a Sunday.