Benson v. State
| Decision Date | 07 December 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 7, September Term, 2005.,7, September Term, 2005. |
| Citation | 389 Md. 615,887 A.2d 525 |
| Parties | Crystal A. BENSON, et al. v. STATE of Maryland, et al. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Marshall N. Perkins (Charles J. Piven of Law Offices of Charles J. Piven, P.A., Baltimore; Roger R. Munn, Jr., of the Law Offices of Carl R. Gold, Towson), all on brief, for appellants.
Debra Gardner, John Kopolow, Public Justice Center, Baltimore, brief of Amici Curiae Alternative Directions, Inc., Children Having Incarcerated Parents, Inc., Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, Family and Corrections Network, Maryland Justice Coalition, Maryland Justice Policy Institute, Inc., and Public Justice Center.
David P. Kennedy, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore), on brief, for appellees.
Argued before BELL, C.J., RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL, BATTAGLIA and GREENE, JJ.
We issued a writ of certiorari to the Court of Special Appeals, before it decided the appeal in this case, to consider several questions:
1. Whether the State of Maryland violates Articles 8 and/or 14 of the Declaration of Rights or the Maryland Consumer Protection Act (CPA), or is subject to the common law actions of unjust enrichment or for money had and received, when the State receives a commission on charges collected from collect phone calls made by prison inmates where the authorizing statute fails to establish the specific rate of commission to be remitted to the State.
2. Whether the notice provisions of the Maryland Tort Claims Act (MTCA) are satisfied when a claimant: (a) brings an action on behalf of a class of plaintiffs; (b) fails to state the specific amount of damages sought, yet the Office of the State Treasurer (Treasurer) could possibly ascertain the amount of damages by investigation; and, (c) files a claim in court seeking injunctive relief one month after giving notice of the claim to the Treasurer when the claim submitted to the Treasurer sought damages only.
3. Whether the Circuit Court erred in denying post-judgment motions seeking permission to advance additional allegations beyond those asserted in Appellants' last amended class action complaints.
Prison inmates who satisfy the security requirements of their respective correctional facilities are permitted to make non-emergency telephone calls, but only on a collect call basis.1 Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) § 12.02.14.01(C)(2). The State Department of Budget and Management (DBM), with the approval of the Board of Public Works, contracted with two private companies to install, maintain, and service telephones and monitoring equipment in the State's correctional facilities. The customer rates for these calls, which are paid by the persons accepting the collect calls placed by the inmate, are set under the contracts. At the operative times in the present litigation, the contract rates were as follows: a flat charge of $0.85 for local calls; $3.45 for the first minute, plus $0.45 for each additional minute, for intra-state long distance calls; and $4.84 for the first minute, plus $0.89 for each additional minute, for inter-state long distance calls. The telephone companies collected the charges from the parties receiving and accepting the calls, and then remitted the commissions to the State (a fixed percentage of the total telephone fees charged per call). The telephone commission rates were 20% of local call charges and 42% of long distance call charges.2 Between Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 and FY 2002, the State received between $5.6 million and $7.3 million each year from the telephone commissions.
Pursuant to §§ 10-502 and 10-503(a)(2) of the Correctional Services Article of the Maryland Code,3 the State's commissions are paid into the State Treasury to be used for an Inmate Welfare Fund (Fund), with each correctional facility having its own dedicated fund to provide goods and services that benefit the general inmate population of that facility.4 The State Treasurer must hold separately, and the Comptroller account for, each fund. § 10-503(a)(3). Furthermore, each facility's fund is subject to an audit by the Office of Legislative Audits, pursuant to § 10-503(a)(4). Under § 10-504, the Comptroller pays out money from each fund as authorized in the approved State Budget for each fiscal year.
Sandra Benson and Mary Ann Dean, Appellants, received and accepted collect calls from inmate relatives during the periods 2 February 2001 through 9 February 2001 and 21 November 1998 through 6 April 2002, respectively, and paid the resulting bills calculated according to the rate structure outlined supra, including the State's commission. On 25 October 2001, Benson, purporting to act on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, sent a letter by certified mail to the Treasurer, pursuant to the MTCA, complaining about the "anti-competitive" collect telephone call contract and fee "mandated" as a commission. She sought compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys' fees.5
When the relief Benson sought was not forthcoming immediately, she filed a Class Action Complaint on 26 November 2001 in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Several amended complaints followed, consummated by her Fifth Amended Class Action Complaint on 19 May 2003. She alleged that the commission remitted to the State was illegal under nine causes of action, as both direct causes of action and actions filed under the MTCA. The various theories of recovery were based on asserted violations of: the Maryland Declaration of Rights, Article 8 (separation of powers); Maryland Declaration of Rights, Article 14 (); Maryland Antitrust Act; Maryland Consumer Protection Act; Maryland Constitution, Article III, § 32 (appropriations); Maryland Declaration of Rights, Article 24 (unlawful taking); unjust enrichment; common law action for money had and received; and, civil conspiracy. For each count, Benson sought prospective injunctive relief to enjoin the State from charging, billing, invoicing, and collecting the commission; an award for attorneys' fees, litigation costs, and interest; and compensatory and punitive damages for herself and each class member. Dean filed her virtually identical Class Action Complaint on 12 June 2003 in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City.
On 24 July 2003, the State filed in each case an omnibus motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, and also asserted that all claims were barred by the MTCA. The State appended exhibits to its motion and, months later, filed an affidavit in further support of its contentions.
The Circuit Court dismissed all of Benson's and Dean's claims in a single order entered on 25 June 2004, nearly a year after the State filed its motion to dismiss. As to Benson's tort-based claims, the court dismissed them for non-compliance with the requirements of the MTCA. The court found that the MTCA did not authorize class action suits. The court also rejected Appellants' prayers for punitive damages as not permitted by the MTCA. In addition, the trial judge concluded that Benson brought her complaint prematurely because she filed it only one month after submitting her claim letter to the Treasurer and without awaiting a reply. The court opined that, because she sought monetary relief, Benson should have waited the sooner of either receiving the Treasurer's denial of relief or six months from the time of filing her claim with the Treasurer. Thus, having resolved that Benson failed to receive a final denial from the Treasurer before she filed her complaint, maintenance of her tort claims was precluded.
Benson's non-tort claims under the Consumer Protection Act and the antitrust statute also were dismissed. The court dismissed the Consumer Protection Act claim because it concluded that the State was protected by sovereign immunity, the remittance of the telephone commission was not an unfair trade practice, and Appellants suffered no actual loss because they would have paid the same amounts to the private telephone companies even had no commission been remitted to the State. The court dismissed the antitrust claim on sovereign immunity grounds because the State was acting within its legal authority to require the remittance of the telephone commission from the private telephone companies, and because the court was not the appropriate body to decide whether the approved telephone call rates and commission were excessive.
The court dismissed all of Dean's claims as well. The court specifically found that Dean failed to give the State timely notice of her claimed injuries, which began in 1999, because her letter to the Treasurer was not sent until 2003. Thus, Dean's tort claims were precluded for failure to comply with the MTCA's notice provisions. The court also dismissed all of Dean's claims because she failed to allege in her complaint any facts supporting her claimed injury, concluding that the appended exhibits of her phone bills were insufficient to establish loss.
On 2 July 2004, Benson and Dean filed a joint Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment seeking to add several allegations to their complaints, including that each of the plaintiffs "suffered actual injury related to the matters complained of." Soon thereafter, Benson and Dean filed notices of appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. They then filed a second post-judgment motion with the Circuit Court on 13 September 2004 seeking to amend their complaints to add allegations that the violations were continuing. They argued that the court failed to recognize that Benson's initial complaint sought only injunctive relief and therefore she complied with MTCA requirements. The Circuit Court denied the post-judgment motions. We issued a writ of certiorari before the Court of Special Appeals...
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