Maryland Court of Appeals Decisions 2017
Date: December 20, 2017
Docket Number: 17/17
Date: December 18, 2017
Docket Number: 19/17
Justia Opinion Summary: Because the State’s authority to nol pros applies only to charges, the State may not use its nol pros authority to alter a final judgment such as a conviction and sentence. At issue before the Supreme Court was whether…
Date: December 18, 2017
Docket Number: 1m/17
Justia Opinion Summary: The application of Georgia law concerning a pollution exclusion contained in an insurance policy as excluding coverage for bodily injuries resulting from the ingestion of lead-based paint under the principle of lex loci…
Date: December 18, 2017
Docket Number: 20/17
Justia Opinion Summary: The trial court in a second lawsuit against Defendants seeking reformation of a refinance deed of trust properly determined that the elements of res judicata and collateral estoppel were satisfied and thus barred…
Date: December 18, 2017
Docket Number: 7/17
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, thirteen operators of charter schools in Baltimore County, filed breach of contract complaints against the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners directly in the circuit court without first seeking…
Date: November 28, 2017
Docket Number: 1/17
Justia Opinion Summary: The law enforcement officers that stopped Defendant in this case had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory stop when they witnessed what appeared to be criminal activity immediately before the stop.…
Date: November 28, 2017
Docket Number: 3/17
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this appeal was the Circuit Court for Baltimore City’s grant of Defendant’s motion to transfer this case to Talbot County and the proper application of the standard of appellate review to the trial court’s…
Date: November 28, 2017
Docket Number: 5/17
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue was the admissibility at a child in need of assistance (CINA) proceeding of the out-of-court statement of J.J., the nine-year-old daughter of Petitioner, alleging that Petitioner had sexually abused her. The…
Date: November 20, 2017
Docket Number: 18/17
Justia Opinion Summary: A county may rescind its approval of a municipality’s rezoning of annexed land. The Town Commissioners of Queenstown annexed farm land adjacent to Queenstown in Queen Anne’s County and rezoned the annexed land for…
Date: November 17, 2017
Docket Number: 13/17
Justia Opinion Summary: To be valid, a Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement (DRRA) is not required to confer an enhanced public benefit on a county. After a DRRA was approved and recorded, Cleanwater Linganore, Inc. and other…
Date: October 20, 2017
Docket Number: 2/17
Justia Opinion Summary: In this child in need of assistance (CINA) case, the Court of Appeals settled conflicting decisions from the Court of Special Appeals on the appealability of a juvenile court’s order waiving the government’s obligation…
Date: October 20, 2017
Docket Number: 4/17
Justia Opinion Summary: In this criminal case concerning the State’s obligation to disclose to a defendant’s counsel information regarding a State’s witness’s pretrial identification of a co-defendant and whether the State was required to make…
Date: August 31, 2017
Docket Number: 89/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The suppression court did not err in denying Petitioner’s motion to suppress the images of his fifteen-year-old girlfriend that the police found while executing the warrant to search Petitioner’s cell phone because the…
Date: August 31, 2017
Docket Number: 92/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Defendant’s motion to suppress of evidence obtained during a search of his cell phone seized by police incident to an arrest, holding that the affidavit in support of the…
Date: August 29, 2017
Docket Number: 97/16
Justia Opinion Summary: There is no procedural bar prohibiting a third-party from seeking to intervene in a custody dispute between parents because Maryland Rule 2-214 allows any person to intervene in an action "when the person's claim or…
Date: August 28, 2017
Docket Number: 73/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Hosford, severely disabled and wheelchair-bound, has muscle spasms and pain.Since 1989, Hosford has resided at Foghorn's Baltimore CIty Ruscombe Gardens Apartments, subsidized through a federal “Section 8” project-based…
Date: August 28, 2017
Docket Number: 77/16
Justia Opinion Summary: A criminal defendant who is not competent to stand trial may not be continued in pretrial detention unless the government takes steps to provide treatment to restore the defendant to competency or to have the defendant…
Date: August 25, 2017
Docket Number: 79/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The will submitted to probate in this case satisfied the statutory requirements for valid execution, particularly the requirement of attestation, and therefore, the circuit court properly granted summary judgment in…
Date: August 25, 2017
Docket Number: 98/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Alternative Medicine Maryland, LLC (AMM) sued the Natalie M. LaPrade Medical Cannabis Commission, its members, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene after AMM applied for, but did not receive, pre-approval for…
Date: August 23, 2017
Docket Number: 86/16
Justia Opinion Summary: A postconviction petitioner’s (Petitioner) trial counsel was not constitutionally ineffective by consenting to the presence of an alternate juror during deliberations, and the performance of Petitioner’s appellate…
Date: August 16, 2017
Docket Number: 71/16
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue was the use of a lien on real property as part of a deferred financing arrangement for the construction of water and sewer infrastructure to serve a new home development. To carry out a deferred financing…
Date: August 10, 2017
Docket Number: 93/16
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether an agreement entered into during the course of the parties’ marriage made manifest by three deeds by which title was transferred to Wife by Husband was sufficient to exclude those…
Date: August 7, 2017
Docket Number: 88/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, who was charged with solicitation, conspiracy, and first degree premeditated murder after contracting with a third party to kill her abusive husband, presented sufficient evidence that she felt as though she…
Date: August 4, 2017
Docket Number: 68/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals affirmed the finding of the Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) that Employer and Insurer (collectively, Respondents) were entitled to offset the ordinary disability benefits already paid to…
Date: August 4, 2017
Docket Number: 82/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the court of special appeals that upheld all but one of Petitioner’s convictions. Petitioner was convicted by a jury of second degree murder, attempted second degree murder,…
Date: August 4, 2017
Docket Number: 87/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the court of special appeals, which affirmed the trial court’s judgment on Robert Roman’s negligence count against Sage Title, LLC but reversed the trial court’s grant of…
Date: August 2, 2017
Docket Number: 65/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Greco v. State, 427 Md. 477 (2012) announced the rule that a term-of-years sentence for first degree murder is an illegal sentence that must be corrected by adding a period of probation. At issue before the Court of…
Date: July 31, 2017
Docket Number: 44/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Evidence of a convicted defendant’s membership in a gang is admissible at sentencing even where the gang membership is unrelated to the underlying criminal conviction but where the State establishes that all gang members…
Date: July 31, 2017
Docket Number: 9/16
Justia Opinion Summary: When P. Thomas Hoff, the founder of One Call Concepts, Inc. and Hanover Investments, Inc. (Hanover), terminated the employment of Susan Volkman and redeemed her shares of Hanover, Hoff and others brought this declaratory…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 25m/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals answered a question certified by the court of special appeals regarding whether a trial judge may pose a broad occupational bias voir dire question when the parties requested that the trial judge…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 66/16
Justia Opinion Summary: This lawsuit was the result of the amendments to an area master plan to prohibit surface mining in certain mineral-rich areas of the county. The amendments were made by County Council of Prince George’s County, sitting…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 74/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Md. Code Ann. Crim. Proc. 4-102 provides that in a circuit court proceeding a defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing when charged by information with felonies but not when the defendant is charged by information…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 81/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the court of special appeals affirming the denial of Petitioner’s motion to correct illegal sentence. Petitioner pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit theft and making a…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 84/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Appeals reversed the suppression of certain evidence discovered upon detectives’ use of a cell site simulator - or an undercover cell tower - concluding that whether use of a cell site simulator is a search…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 85/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Contractually-shortened limitations periods, such as the one at issue in this case, are valid only if there is no statute to the contrary, the provision is not the result of fraud, duress or misrepresentation, and the…
Date: July 28, 2017
Docket Number: 96/16
Justia Opinion Summary: A surety who issued a performance bond on a subcontract was not bound by that contract’s arbitration clause when the surety was jointly and severally liable for the “performance of” the subcontract and the entire…
Date: July 18, 2017
Docket Number: 30/16
Justia Opinion Summary: In this construction contract dispute, White Flint express Realty Group Limited Partnership, LLLP (White Flint) was entitled to recover attorney’s fees in connection with an action to enforce the contract between White…
Date: July 14, 2017
Docket Number: 25/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a charter school located in Frederick, Maryland, and Respondent, the Frederick County Board of Education (Local Board), disputed whether the Local Board’s annual funding allocation to Petitioner in its first…
Date: July 14, 2017
Docket Number: 83/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The court of special appeals did not abuse its discretion by denying the State’s motion for reconsideration requesting a remand for the coram nobis court to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the merits of Defendant’s…
Date: July 12, 2017
Docket Number: 64/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Evidence of a medical diagnosis is not required to establish that a victim is mentally defective as defined by Md. Crim. Law 3-301(b). Petitioner challenged his convictions of second-degree rape and third-degree sexual…
Date: July 11, 2017
Docket Number: 58/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Christian was born in 1990. Until October 1992, he resided on Spaulding Avenue in Baltimore. Christian and his mother then moved to Denmore. In September 1993, they moved back to Spaulding and lived there until September…
Date: July 11, 2017
Docket Number: 76/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Stevenson was born in 1990. After 10 months, Stevenson and her mother moved to Fairview Avenue (owned by Rochkind), where they lived for 15 months. Fairview contained flaking paint on the windowsills, floors, and porch. …
Date: July 10, 2017
Docket Number: 69/16
Justia Opinion Summary: LaBonte worked for Electrical General, which had workers’ compensation insurance. LaBonte injured his back at work when he caught a ladder that was falling. The Workers’ Compensation Commission awarded him temporary…
Date: July 10, 2017
Docket Number: 91/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Scott was convicted of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. Md. Code, Crim. Law 14-101(d)…
Date: June 27, 2017
Docket Number: 32/16
Justia Opinion Summary: While Md. Code. Ann. Crim. Law 10-615 does not provide for seizure of an animal that is already in state custody in connection with a criminal proceeding, an officer of a humane society may notify the animal’s owner or…
Date: June 27, 2017
Docket Number: 62/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The circuit court’s order denying Appellant’s petition to compel arbitration was not a final, appealable judgment under Md. Code Ann. Cts. & Jud. Proc. 12-301. Appellees were individuals who each purchased vehicles from…
Date: June 23, 2017
Docket Number: 33/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Maryland Condominium Act allows access to communally-held property to be restricted as a means to enforce payment of condominium fees, but such restrictions must first be authorized by the unit owners through…
Date: June 22, 2017
Docket Number: 42/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Between 2011 and 2013, a labor union held demonstrations at Walmart stores throughout Maryland, protesting Walmart’s employment conditions. Consequently, Walmart sued the union for trespass and nuisance and sought an…
Date: June 22, 2017
Docket Number: 70/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The circuit court and Court of Special Appeals affirmed the decision of the Howard County Board of Appeals approving a conditional use application for a funeral home in Howard County’s Rural Residential-Density Exchange…
Date: June 22, 2017
Docket Number: 80/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Court of Special Appeals did not err in concluding that Defendant’s sentence was imposed in violation of Maryland Rule 4-243(c) because, pursuant to a plea agreement, the State did not receive what it bargained for…
Date: June 21, 2017
Docket Number: 67/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, who was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to four consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, appealed the circuit court’s denial of his pro se petition for DNA…
Date: June 21, 2017
Docket Number: 90/16
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1993, the Anne Arundel county board of appeals (Board) granted Petitioner special exceptions and variances to construct and landfill and sand and gravel operations. Three extensions of time were necessary to obtain…
Date: May 31, 2017
Docket Number: 16/16
Justia Opinion Summary: In order to recover attorney’s fees against a negligent title searcher using the collateral litigation doctrine, the plaintiff must show that the title searcher’s negligence proximately caused the plaintiff to file a…
Date: May 30, 2017
Docket Number: 57/16
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue before the Court of Appeals was whether - without ruling out other possible causes of exposure - the fact that property tested positive for lead-based paint throughout its interior in 1976, combined with other…
Date: May 25, 2017
Docket Number: 20/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner made several public records requests under the Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) to the police department of Anne Arundel County, ultimately seeking “any and all” records related to one of the County’s…
Date: May 24, 2017
Docket Number: 34/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Evidence of non-party negligence was properly admitted in this case. Petitioners alleged that John S. Park, M.D. was negligent when he interpreted radiological images, leading to Lance Copsey’s fatal stroke. Petitioners…
Date: May 24, 2017
Docket Number: 47/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was convicted of attempted first-degree rape, third-degree sexual offense, and second-degree sexual offense. Appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape offense. Appellant later filed a petition…
Date: May 22, 2017
Docket Number: 55/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Darrell Ellis filed criminal charges against Andrew Baker for an incident involving a shoot-out. Baker then filed criminal charges against Ellis for an alleged assault that occurred two days later. At Baker’s trial for…
Date: May 22, 2017
Docket Number: 63/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Jayson Master sought access to a lease between Calvert Tract, LLC and Whole Foods. Calvert Tract had earlier voluntarily provided a redacted version of the lease to Prince George’s County while its zoning application was…
Date: May 22, 2017
Docket Number: 75/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Three of four siblings who were beneficiaries under an irrevocable trust attempted to remove the fourth sibling as a beneficiary by relying on a provision of the irrevocable trust that permitted seventy-five percent of…
Date: May 22, 2017
Docket Number: 78/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The circuit court erred in dismissing the minor Appellant’s wrongful death claims as untimely and erred in failing to consider that the time limitation to file a wrongful death action is tolled when the defendant engages…
Date: April 26, 2017
Docket Number: 38/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Petitioner was acquitted of murder in the first degree but convicted of murder in the second degree. The circuit court granted Petitioner’s motion for a new trial. After the State rested its case…
Date: April 24, 2017
Docket Number: 40/16
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1993, Respondent was convicted of two counts of felony murder and other crimes. Respondent was sentenced to life without parole for the murders. Twenty-one years later, a trial witness alleged that he “lied” during…
Date: April 24, 2017
Docket Number: 61/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Colorado resident, entered Maryland pursuant to a summons to testify at a murder trial. Petitioner was subsequently arrested in Maryland, and the State charged him with crimes related to the murder. A jury…
Date: April 21, 2017
Docket Number: 24/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Petitioner was convicted of armed robbery, robbery, and related offenses. The trial court sentenced Petitioner to twenty years’ imprisonment for armed robbery and merged the remaining offenses.…
Date: April 21, 2017
Docket Number: 29/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in 2000, Appellant was convicted of first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. In 2013, Appellant filed a Public Information Act request…
Date: April 21, 2017
Docket Numbers: 52/16, 53/16
Justia Opinion Summary: These two cases concerned administrative hearings in cases where an individual suspected to have been driving (or attempting to drive) while impaired refuses to take a breath test for blood alcohol concentration. In each…
Date: March 31, 2017
Docket Number: 72/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder, among other crimes. Defendant was sentenced to four consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, one for…
Date: March 29, 2017
Docket Number: 35/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a former researcher employed by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHU), filed suit against JHU alleging (1) he was wrongfully terminated in retaliation for his repeated protests of research…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: 13/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Under Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety, 3-103(b), Maryland law enforcement agencies may not prohibit law enforcement officers from working secondary employment. Petitioner, a former employee of the Maryland State Police…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: 15/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner pled guilty to theft in exchange for the State’s recommendation that she receive no executed jail time. The district court did not follow the State’s recommendation and instead imposed a sentence of thirty…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: 2/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Delaware limited liability company, owned and managed an apartment building in the City of Annapolis, Maryland that was within the designated historic district under the City’s zoning ordinance. The…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: 49/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted on seventeen various counts, resulting in a cumulative sentence of 390 years imprisonment. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed Defendant’s convictions but vacated his…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: 56/16
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether a law enforcement officer who detects an odor of marijuana emanating from a vehicle with multiple occupants has reasonable articulable suspicion that the vehicle’s occupants are armed…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: 64/15
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and related charges. Defendant filed a motion to suppress statements he made to police during an interrogation at the police department. The circuit court…
Date: March 24, 2017
Docket Number: 21/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) sent Laura Hughes a notice of termination from her position with the agency. Hughes followed the directions for invoking the first tier of the…
Date: March 24, 2017
Docket Number: 27/16
Justia Opinion Summary: A family magistrate of the circuit court for Baltimore County found that Cody H. had committed the delinquent act of assault by punching a sixteen-year-old victim in the face and breaking his jaw. The magistrate judgment…
Date: March 24, 2017
Docket Number: 31/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (the Commission) contracted with Fort Myer Construction Corporation to build a pedestrian bridge. After disputes arose, Fort Myer sued the Commission. The Commission…
Date: March 24, 2017
Docket Number: 36/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Petitioner was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed. Petitioner appealed, inter alia, the denial of his motion to suppress the…
Date: March 24, 2017
Docket Number: 45/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Lender’s assignee (Assignee), while operating as an unlicensed debt collector, obtained a judgment against a credit card debtor (Debtor) in district court. Debtor’s contract with Lender included an arbitration provision.…
Date: February 24, 2017
Docket Number: 52/15
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent was acquitted in a jury trial of first-degree murder premeditated murder, second-degree specific intent murder, and other charges. Thereafter, the State sought to prosecute Respondent for second-degree felony…
Date: February 22, 2017
Docket Number: 5m/16
Justia Opinion Summary: After an investigation, the Commission on Judicial Disabilities found by clear and convincing evidence that Judge Pamela J. White had committed sanctionable conduct and that a public reprimand was the appropriate…
Date: February 21, 2017
Docket Number: 14/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Baltimore contracted with Engineer to design upgrades to a wastewater treatment plant. Contractor successfully bid for work on the construction project. During construction, Contractor encountered leaking and…
Date: February 17, 2017
Docket Number: 43/16
Justia Opinion Summary: The Board of Liquor License Commissioners for Baltimore City (the Liquor Board) found that Steven Kougl and his company, Kougl, Inc., violated three Rules and Regulations for the Board of Liquor License Commissioners for…
Date: February 1, 2017
Docket Number: 50/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Ian Schlakman and Frank Richardson (Appellees) filed suit challenging the decisions of the Baltimore City Board of Elections to certify Dan Sparaco as an eligible candidate and the State Board of Elections to include him…
Date: January 27, 2017
Docket Number: 18/16
Justia Opinion Summary: This case related to three actions: (1) an Endangered Species Act case (ESA case), where the Fund for Animals, Inc. (FFA) and other plaintiffs sued Ringling Brothers and its owner, Feld Entertainment, (collectively,…
Date: January 25, 2017
Docket Number: 23/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Kor-Ko, Ltd. sought to overturn the Maryland Department of the Environment’s (MDE) grant of a construction permit to Maryland Crematory, LLC (MC) to operate a crematorium in the same commercial park building containing…
Date: January 23, 2017
Docket Number: 11/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Dr. Mark Geier, David Geier, and Anne Geier (collectively, Respondents) filed a complaint against the Maryland Board of Physicians and related individuals (collectively, Petitioners), alleging that Petitioners invaded…
Date: January 23, 2017
Docket Number: 12/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Applicants applied for a petition for a special exception in the Baltimore County Zoning Regulations to operate a fuel service station with a convenience store. At a hearing conducted by the Office of Administrative…
Date: January 23, 2017
Docket Number: 22/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was fifteen years old when he committed murder. Petitioner was charged as an adult, and the circuit court denied Petitioner’s request to transfer the case back to juvenile court. Twenty-six years later, the…
Date: January 23, 2017
Docket Number: 41/16
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether an insured may receive personal injury protection (PIP) coverage under a personal motor vehicle liability insurance policy for injuries sustained while driving a taxicab owned by the…
Date: January 23, 2017
Docket Number: 60/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants brought this action just weeks before the 2016 general election seeking to compel the State Board of Elections and the Baltimore City Board of Elections (collectively, Appellees) to establish a special system…
Date: January 20, 2017
Docket Number: 17/16
Justia Opinion Summary: This suit arose from the actions of iStar’s Board of Directors in modifying performance-based executive compensation awards, which were granted in the form of stock. Petitioners filed suit against current and former…
Date: January 20, 2017
Docket Number: 28/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Through Chapter 35 of the 2016 Laws of Maryland, the General Assembly amended Md. Code Ann., Educ. 3-110(b), which governs the School Board Nominating Commission of Anne Arundel County, to eliminate the ability of the…
Date: January 20, 2017
Docket Numbers: 37/16, 39/16, 46/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Before October 1, 2014, under Maryland law, possession of less than ten grams of marijuana was a misdemeanor that carried a maximum penalty of ninety days of incarceration and a fine of $500. As of that date, possession…
Date: January 20, 2017
Docket Number: 7/16
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The police obtained DNA samples from the crime scene. The DNA analysis was conducted in accordance with the FBI’s Quality Assurance Standards. Prior to trial,…
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