Justia Maryland Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the court of special appeals affirming the judgment of the circuit court granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants in this wrongful death action, holding that the lower courts correctly decided Plaintiff's claim because he pleaded a loss of chance case, which is not recognized in Maryland.After Stephanie Wadsworth died of breast cancer, Plaintiff, her husband, brought this survival action and wrongful death action against several healthcare providers, including Defendants. Defendants moved for summary judgment, asserting that the legal theory upon which Plaintiff's lawsuit was based - the loss of chance doctrine - was not recognized in Maryland. The trial court granted the motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the circuit court correctly determined that Plaintiff's case was a loss of chance case, which is not recognized in Maryland. View "Wadsworth v. Sharma" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals held that article III, section 305 of the Charter for Prince George's County establishes the procedures for decennial redistricting of councilmanic districts and requires the Prince George's County Council to adopt the plan of the redistricting commission by resolution upon notice and public hearing.The circuit court invalidated an alternative redistricting plan using a resolution that was proposed by the Council after considering the redistricting plan proposed by the Prince George's County 2021 Redistricting Commission, after which Prince George's County appealed. The Court of Appeals held (1) the Council is prohibited by the Charter from enacting an alternative redistricting plan by resolution; and (2) because the Council passed no other law changing the Commission's proposal the Commission's plan became effective by operation of law on November 30, 2021. View "Charter for Prince George's County v. Thurston" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals held that the trial courts in these two labor and employment cases erred in granting summary judgment at the conclusion of the workers' evidence at trial because genuine issues of material fact existed.At issue was whether construction workers were entitled to unpaid wages or overtime wages for the time that they waited and traveled between a parking area where their employers directed them to park and a construction site where they performed physical labor. Specifically at issue was whether the Portal-to Portal Act, 29 U.S.C. 251 to 262, has been adopted or incorporated into Maryland law, in which cases the workers' wait and travel time of approximately two hours would not be compensable. The trial courts granted summary judgment in favor of the employers and dismissed all claims. The court of special appeals affirmed. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that there was genuine disputes of material fact as to whether the workers were entitled to compensation under Code of Maryland Regulations 09.12.41.10. View "Amaya v. DGS Construction, LLC" on Justia Law

In these actions brought by tax sale buyers for declaratory and injunctive relief alleging that Maryland sheriffs exceeded their express and implied authority by adopting policies concerning how to execute writs of possession in tax sale foreclosure cases the Court of Appeals held that the sheriffs had the implied authority to adopt policies for how to serve writs of possession in such cases.This case involved a challenge to two policies used by sheriffs in evicting people from their homes when a tax sale buyer obtains a judgment foreclosing the right of reception with respect to a property and the homeowner does not redeem the property. Under the "mover policy," sheriffs require tax sale buyers to provide movers to remove personal property from the premises when serving writs of possession. Under the "weather policy," sheriffs postpone the service of writs of possession during bad whether conditions. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' judgments in favor of the sheriffs, holding that, in the execution of writs of possession, both the mover policy and the weather policy constituted a valid exercise of powers daily implied by the sheriffs' expressly given duties and authority. View "Thornton Mellon LLC v. Frederick County Sheriff" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part the decision of the court of special appeals denying a motion for reconsideration of the circuit court's judgment reversing the decision of the County Board of Appeals of Anne Arundel County denying 808 Bestgate Realty, LLC's request for transportation impact fee credits, holding that remand was required.The transportation impact fee credits Bestgate sought was in connection with road improvements it made to a county road as part of a redevelopment project. The County's engineer administrator determined that the improvements provided transportation capacity that met the requirements of the County's standards applicable to roads, but the Board denied Bestgate's request for transportation impact fee credits. The circuit court reversed. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding (1) under the plain language of Md. Code Ann. 17-11-207(c), Bestgate was entitled to receive the requested transportation impact fee credits; and (2) the Board erred in its interpretation of the Code. View "Anne Arundel County v. 808 Bestgate Realty, LLC" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals vacated the judgment of the court of special appeals concluding that Defendant had waived his right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion, holding that Defendant did not waive his right to appeal the suppression ruling.Defendant, who was indicted on charges of possessing a regulated firearm after having been convicted of a crime of violence and other crimes, moved to suppress the gun and loaded magazine that police recovered inside a closed overnight bag during a warrantless search of Defendant's hotel room. The trial judge denied the motion to suppress. Thereafter, the State filed a superseding indictment under a new case number to add additional charges. When Defendant renewed his motion to suppress the transcript and all exhibits from the motion filed in the first case were admitted and incorporated into the record. The handgun and magazine were admitted into evidence during Defendant's ensuing trial. The court of special appeals denied Defendant's appeal, concluding that Defendant waived his right to appeal the suppression ruling by making no objection to the introduction of the challenged evidence at trial. The Court of Appeals vacated the decision below, holding that Defendant did not waive his right to appeal the suppression ruling. View "Huggins v. State" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the court of special appeals reversing Defendant's conviction for various crimes related to the murders of two high school seniors, holding that the court of special appeals erred in reversing the convictions.On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to allow Defendant to cross-examine one of the State's witnesses about out-of-court statements allegedly made by one of his co-defendants and by allowing a lay witness to testify that a cellphone user such as himself has the ability to turn off location tracking associated with the user's Google accounts. The court of special appeals agreed and ordered a new trial. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding (1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion by limiting the proposed cross-examination; and (2) a user's ability to adjust the location tracking feature of a smartphone is within the understanding of the average lay person, and therefore, a witness whose testimony referred to that ability was not required to qualify as an expert. View "State v. Galicia" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the court of special appeals reversing Defendant's conviction for murder and related charges on the grounds that the trial court erred in admitting certain expert testimony, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the expert testimony.At issue was the trial court's admission of expert testimony concerning the reverse projection photogrammetry analysis performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the height estimate of the suspect resulting from that analysis. In reversing Defendant's conviction, the court of special appeals concluded that the height measurement was unreliable and therefore inadmissible under Rochkind v. Stevenson, 471 Md. 1 (2020), and Maryland Rule 5-702. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the trial court did not abuse its broad discretion in admitting the expert testimony in question. View "State v. Matthews" on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the court of special appeals reversing the judgment of the circuit court, sitting as the juvenile court, denying D.D.'s motion to suppress evidence of a loaded gun found by law enforcement officers in D.D.'s waistband, holding that there was no constitutional violation in this case.At issue in this case was whether this Court should extend the holding in Lewis v. State, 470 Md. 1 (2020), that the odor of marijuana alone does not provide probable cause to believe that the person is in possession of a criminal amount of the drug, to an investigatory detention. In reversing the juvenile court's denial of D.D.'s suppression motion, the court of special appeals held that the investigatory detention of D.D., which was based solely on the order of marijuana, violated the Fourth Amendment. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding (1) the odor of marijauna provides reasonable suspicion of criminal activity sufficient to conduct a brief investigatory detention; and (2) the officers in the instant case had reasonable suspicion to detain D.D., and therefore, the pat-down that led to the discovery of the gun on D.D. was also reasonable. View "In re D.D." on Justia Law

The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the court of special appeals affirming Defendant's convictions for first-degree felony murder, first-degree burglary, and the theft of a Jeep, holding that Defendant was not entitled to relief on his allegations of error.Specifically, the Court of Appeals held (1) Defendant's felony murder conviction was not preempted by the manslaughter by motor vehicle statute; (2) Defendant's sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole was not unconstitutional under either the Eighth Amendment or Article 25 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights; and (3) Defendant was not entitled to an individualized sentencing proceeding under Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012). View "Harris v. State" on Justia Law