MEDICAL MUTUAL LIABILITY INS. SOCIETY. v. Davis
Decision Date | 15 September 2005 |
Docket Number | No. 84,84 |
Citation | 883 A.2d 158,389 Md. 95 |
Parties | MEDICAL MUTUAL LIABILITY INSURANCE SOCIETY OF MARYLAND v. Williette DAVIS, et al. |
Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Albert D. Breault (Joan F. Brault, Brault, Graham, Scott & Brault, LLC, Rockville, on brief), for appellant.
Robert G. Samet (Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP, Rockville, on brief), for appellees.
Argued before BELL, C.J., ELDRIDGE,1 RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL and BATTAGLIA, JJ.
The issue we are required in this case to decide is whether a judgment creditor, indisputably entitled to post-judgment interest on its judgment, who accepts a remittitur, may receive interest on that portion of the post-judgment interest paid pursuant to a court order, entered in a writ of garnishment proceeding, determining that post-judgment interest begins to run when the judgment is entered, rather than when the remittitur is accepted, where, prior to the initiation of the garnishment proceedings, the judgment debtor's insured had paid into the court the judgment debtor's policy limits and the post-judgment interest at issue accrued after the judgment creditor's acceptance of the remittitur. The Circuit Court for Prince George's County concluded that Williette Davis and Massaquai Kamara, the appellees, were entitled to the post-judgment interest they sought from Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland, the appellant, reasoning that a money judgment had been entered in the garnishment proceedings they initiated. This Court, on its own initiative, granted the appellant's petition for writ of certiorari before the Court of Special Appeals acted. Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland v. Davis, 371 Md. 613, 810 A.2d 961 (2002). We shall reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court.
This is the second time this case has reached this Court. On the first, the issue we addressed was when post-judgment interest began to accrue on a money judgment returned by a jury, where the jury's verdict is subsequently reduced by the trial court, pursuant to a remittitur. Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland v. Davis, 365 Md. 477, 478, 781 A.2d 781, 781 (2001).2 This Court affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court. Id. at 487, 781 A.2d at 787. Applying Maryland Rule 2-604(b),3 "in accordance with the purpose of post-judgment interest and the considerable case-law governing the running of post-judgment interest,"4id. at 484, 781 A.2d at 785, we held that the appellees "were entitled to the loss of income on the $2,350,000.00 [the amount of the remitted judgment] from November 13, 1996," observing: "Presumably, Medical Mutual earned interest on that sum during the ten-month period from November 1996 to September 1997." Id. at 485, 781 A.2d at 785. The appellant paid the post-judgment interest in the amount ordered.5 Its effort to have the appellees' judgment entered on the docket as fully paid and satisfied met with opposition from the appellees, however, whereupon it filed a Motion To Enter Judgment As Fully Paid And Satisfied.6 The appellees claimed that additional post-judgment interest on the judgment had become due during the litigation and, what's more, has remained unpaid. The Circuit Court held a hearing on the appellant's motion, after which, agreeing with the appellees, it ordered that the appellant pay interest on the post-judgment interest it had previously paid. At issue on this appeal, therefore, is the propriety of the order entered by the Circuit Court that "assess[ed] judgment interest on the judgment of garnishment... from January 29, 1999 to the present and continuing."
Garnishment is a form of attachment, Fico, Inc. v. Ghingher, 287 Md. 150, 158-59, 411 A.2d 430, 436 (1980); Catholic University of America v. Bragunier Masonry Contractors, Inc., 139 Md.App. 277, 293, 775 A.2d 458, 467 (2001),aff'd, 368 Md. 608, 796 A.2d 744 (2002), and method of execution. Northwestern Nat'l. Ins. v. William G. Wetherall, Inc., 267 Md. 378, 384, 298 A.2d 1, 5 (1972). See Parkville Fed. Sav. Bank v. Maryland Nat'l Bank, 343 Md. 412, 418, 681 A.2d 521 (1996) (). As such, it is derived from a "special and limited statutory power." Belcher v. Government Employees' Ins. Co., 282 Md. 718, 720, 387 A.2d 770, 772 (1978), quoting Cole v. Randall Park Holding Co., 201 Md. 616, 623, 95 A.2d 273, 277 (1953); see Killen v. American Casualty, 231 Md. 105, 108, 189 A.2d 103, 105-06 (1963); Coward v. Dillinger, 56 Md. 59, 60-61 (1881).
Proceedings via writ of garnishment permit the attachment of the property of the judgment debtor in the possession of third parties and, when the writ has been issued and served, require the garnishee, the third party possessor, to keep safe the property in his possession or that may come into possession. Parkville, 343 Md. at 419, 681 A.2d at 524; Fico, 287 Md. at 162, 411 A.2d at 437. See also Bragunier Masonry, 139 Md.App. at 293, 775 A.2d at 467-68. In that way, such proceedings enable the judgment creditor to enforce its judgment against the judgment debtor even though the judgment debtor is not in possession of the property. Parkville, 343 Md. at 418, 681 A.2d at 524 () See PAUL V. NIEMEYER AND LINDA M. SCHUETT, MARYLAND RULES COMMENTARY at 518 (2nd ed.1992).
This Court has characterized, at length, the nature and function of a garnishment proceeding. E.g., Bragunier Masonry Contractors, Inc. v. Catholic University of America, 368 Md. 608, 621-24, 796 A.2d 744, 751-53 (2002); Parkville, 343 Md. at 418, 681 A.2d at 524; Fico, 287 Md. at 158-59, 411 A.2d at 436, and cases therein cited, concluding and emphasizing "the principle growing out of the nature and function of a garnishment proceeding, that the creditor merely steps into the shoes of the debtor and can only recover to the same extent as could the debtor." Bragunier Masonry, 368 Md. at 623, 796 A.2d at 752. Fico is illustrative. There, we commented:
287 Md. at 159, 411 A.2d at 436. See also Peninsula Ins. Co. v. Houser, 248 Md. 714, 717, 238 A.2d 95, 97 (1968); Cole v. Randall Park Holding Co., 201 Md. 616, 623-24, 95 A.2d 273, 277 (1953).
From this principle, it follows, and is well settled, moreover, that garnishment proceedings are not designed or intended "`to place the garnishee in a worse position, in reference to the rights and credits attached, than if he had been sued by the defendant [judgment debtor].'" Bragunier Masonry, 368 Md. at 624,796 A.2d at 753, quoting Farmers' & Merchants' Bank of Baltimore v. Franklin Bank of Baltimore, 31 Md. 404, 412, 1869 WL 2863, *5 (1869). See Employers' Liability Assur. Corp. v. Perkins, 169 Md. 269, 284, 181 A. 436, 443 (1935); Farley v. Colver, 113 Md. 379, 385, 77 A. 589, 591-92 (1910). Thus, we have explained:
Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, 31 Md. at 412, 1869 WL at *5. Similarly, in Perkins, we said:
169 Md. at 284, 181 A. at 443, citing Hodge and McLane on Attachments, § 148; 76 A.L.R. pp. 235, 236.
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