BATTAGLIA, J. Charles Stephen Rand, Respondent, was admitted to the Bar of this Court on December 14, 1973. On October 25, 2011, the Attorney Grievance Commission ("Bar Counsel"), acting pursuant to Maryland Rule 16-751(a), 1 filed a "Petition for Disciplinary or Remedial Action" against Rand, which incorporated two complaints. Both the first complaint filed by Lieutenant Bernard Wade and the second, filed by Lieutenant Clarence Lunsford, related to Rand's representation of a group of...
MOYLAN, J. Early Twentieth Century viewers were frozen to their nickelodeons by the heart-stopping melodrama "Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight." 1 With her lover Basil doomed to the gallows at the ringing of the curfew bell, the beleaguered Bess strove heroically and against every manner of complication to hold back the inexorable ticking of the clock. In the melodrama, the damsel in distress, unlike the appellants facing a deadline in the case at hand, ultimately prevailed, climbing to the top...
WRIGHT, J. This appeal arises from a jury verdict in favor of appellee, Interactive Digital Solutions, Inc. ("IDS"), on counts of breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, and tortious interference with business relations. The jury awarded undifferentiated damages totaling $769,422 and on June 8, 2011, the Circuit Court for Howard County entered judgment against appellant, B-Line Medical, LLC ("B-Line"). On June 20, 2011, B-Line timely filed a Motion to Revise Judgment, a Motion...
BERGER, J. This case arises from an order of the Circuit Court for Talbot County modifying the amount of child support to be paid by appellant, Edmund A. Cutts, Jr. ("Father"), to appellee, Nancy L. Trippe ("Mother"). The court also found that the parties' eldest child was a destitute adult child, as defined by statute, and that the parties therefore had a continuing obligation to support her. This appeal followed. Father presents two questions for our review, which we have rephrased as...
WRIGHT, J. This appeal arises from a jury verdict in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City in favor of appellee, Wilhelmina Bradford, finding appellant, JAI Medical Systems Managed Care Organization, Inc. ("JAI"), vicariously liable for the negligent medical care of a provider in its network. Prior to trial, JAI filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds that Dr. Steven W. Bennett was not an employee or agent of JAI, which was denied. At the close of Bradford's case, JAI moved for...
BATTAGLIA, J. In this case, we have been asked to consider whether the Board of Appeals for Charles County, Maryland, 1 in conducting an in-person inspection of the subject property of an application for a special exception 2 to the property's zoning classification, violated various open meeting provisions, including the State Open Meetings Act, Sections 10-501 through 10-512 of the State Government Article, Maryland Code (1984, 2009 Repl.Vol.), 3 those in Section 4.07 of Article 66B,...
KEHOE, J. On September 8, 2008, appellee, Ms. Jocelyn Farrar, sued over thirty defendants in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City alleging, inter alia, negligence, breach of warranty, and strict products liability, for failing to warn her about the toxic fibers found in the defendants' respective asbestos products. This appeal involves only one of the original defendants: appellant, Georgia-Pacific, LLC. Ms. Farrar's complaint alleges that, decades ago, she was exposed to asbestos fibers...
ORDER Upon consideration of the briefs, record, and oral argument in the above case, it is this 5th day of December, 2012, ORDERED, by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, that the State's Motion to Dismiss this direct appeal be, and the same is hereby, granted, there being no jurisdiction in the Court to entertain a direct appeal to the Court of Appeals, under Md. Code, Crim. Proc. Art., 8-201, from the denial by the Circuit Court for Prince George's County (as reflected in its Order of March...
PER CURIAM ORDER For reasons to be stated in an opinion later to be filed, it is this 4th day December, 2012, ORDERED, by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, that the Respondent, Mark Edward Hunt, be, and he is hereby, disbarred, effective immediately, from the further practice of law in the State of Maryland; and it is further ORDERED that the Clerk of this Court shall strike the name of Mark Edward Hunt from the register of attorneys, and pursuant to Maryland Rule 16-760(e), shall certify...
PER CURIAM ORDER. For reasons to be stated in an opinion later to be filed, it is this 3rd day December, 2012 ORDERED, by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, that the Respondent, Robert Weston Mance, III, be, and he is hereby, indefinitely suspended, effective immediately, from the further practice of law in the State of Maryland with the right to reapply no sooner than when Respondent is readmitted unconditionally in the District of Columbia; and it is further ORDERED that the Clerk of this...
BATTAGLIA, J. Two petitions for certiorari were presented for our review that pertain to contribution among joint tort-feasors 1 and arise from one medical malpractice action, in which the Petitioners Wycinna and Christopher Spence 2 (collectively "the Spences") alleged wrongful death and survival claims against Mercy Medical Center, Inc. ("Mercy"), 3 also a Petitioner, and Respondents Emerson R. Julian, Jr., M.D., and his practices Emerson R. Julian, Jr., M.D., P.A., and Harbor City OB/...
ADKINS, J. In this case, we determine the proper measure of lost profit damages in a breach of contract case, a question uncommon for our docket. We also review the rare situation when a trial court has permitted a litigant to discover and introduce into evidence communications between an opposing party and its attorneys, based on an implied waiver of the attorney-client privilege via testimony. Finally, we answer four other issues raised by the parties relating to this urban real estate...
EYLER, DEBORAH, S., J. In the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, Charlene Williams, the appellee, sued Fidelity First Home Mortgage Company, Inc. ("Fidelity First"), the appellant, a mortgage broker; and two former Fidelity First employees, James Fox and James Dan. She alleged, inter alia, that Fox and Dan engaged in a fraudulent foreclosure rescue scheme that caused her to lose title to and be deprived of the equity in her home. She further alleged that, as Fox's employer, Fidelity...
MEREDITH, J. Appellants in this case are personal representatives of the estates of four decedents, each of whom pursued to final judgment claims against various parties in asbestos litigation. 1 The appellee is the Wallace & Gale Asbestos Settlement Trust ("the Trust"), which is the successor to Wallace & Gale ("W & G"), a Baltimore-based insulation contractor that installed asbestos-containing products at various locations in the Baltimore region, including at Bethlehem Steel facilities....
KRAUSER, C.J. Robert Millstone, together with one of his employees, 1 brought an action in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County against his insurance broker, Marvin A. Address and Marvin A. Address & Associates, Inc. (collectively "Address"), alleging negligence, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, intentional misrepresentation, and constructive fraud in the sale, by Address, of numerous life insurance policies to them. Millstone later added, as plaintiffs, his two adult...
MATRICCIANI, J. On May 4, 2010, the Grand Jury for Baltimore City indicted appellants, Baltimore City Police Officers Tyrone Francis and Milton Smith, on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault in the second degree, conspiracy, and misconduct in office. On April 19, 2011, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City commenced trial, and on May 2, 2011, the jury returned its verdict acquitting appellants of all crimes but misconduct. On June 1, 2011, the court sentenced each appellant to...
BARBERA, J. To be convicted of theft, a person must take property belonging to someone else with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of it. Maryland's consolidated theft statute includes property that is lost, mislaid, or delivered by mistake. See Md. Code (2002, 2012 Repl.Vol.), 7-104(d) of the Criminal Law Article. 1 Following a bench trial before the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, Latresha L. Weems, Respondent, was convicted of theft for cashing a counterfeit check...
HARRELL, J. Gerald Isadore Katz, an attorney admitted to practice in Maryland on 2 June 1983, was charged by criminal information on 18 June 2010 in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County with willful failure to file Maryland state income tax returns for 2004 and 2005. 1 On 20 August 2010, he entered a guilty plea to both counts. A judgment of conviction was rendered on 13 January 2011. Katz was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on each count, all suspended, five years' supervised...
JOHN C. ELDRIDGE (Retired, Specially Assigned), J. This is the latest in a series of opinions and orders by this Court involving the constitutional provision and the implementing legislation authorizing a limited number of "video lottery terminals," commonly known as "slot machines," at specified Maryland facilities, including a facility in the area of northern Anne Arundel County. 1 See Ch. 5 of the 2007 Special Session of the General Assembly proposing new Article XIX of the Maryland...
HARRELL, J. This case comes to us through the courtesy of fairly recent advancements in the field of information technology, 1 as applied to the increasingly popular use in Maryland of voter petitions seeking to place questions before the electorate on a ballot. See generally Md.Code (2002, 2010 Repl. Vol.), Election Law Article, 7-101-7-105; Doe v. Md. State Bd. of Elections, 428 Md. 596 , 53 A.3d 1111 (2012) (also representing computer-facilitated petitions to submit the Maryland...
