Tedrow v. Deskin

• Decision Date: 17 May 1972
• Docket Number: No. 343,343
• Citation: 265 Md. 546,290 A.2d 799
• Parties: Robert D. TEDROW, Jr. v. Martin DESKIN et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 546

265 Md. 546

290 A.2d 799

Robert D. TEDROW, Jr. v. Martin DESKIN et al.

No. 343.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

May 17, 1972.

Robert D. Tedrow, Jr., in pro. per.

Samuel Gordon and Gordon & Perlis, Silver Spring, on brief for appellees.

Submitted to HAMMOND, C. J., and BARNES, McWILLIAMS, SINGLEY, SMITH and DIGGES, JJ.

McWILLIAMS, Judge.

This is the second visit of the appellant (Tedrow) to this Court. The first was dealt with in Tedrow v. Ford Motor Co., 260 Md. 142, 271 A.2d 688 (1970). He continues to appear pro se and, it will be seen, he is making heavy weather of it. The assistance of counsel might well have provided him with calmer seas and, if not a prosperous voyage, surely a less expensive one. The statement of facts will be meagre simply because Tedrow has not succeeded in getting much beyond his declaration.

Tedrow is a Washington real estate broker who guardedly admits he is over 21 years of age. He has alleged that on 20 May 1966 he bought a 1964 Ford Thunderbird from Tom and Martin Ford, Inc., for which he paid $2,500. He alleged also that although the odometer showed 27,939 miles the vehicle had actually traveled 58,342 miles and that the lower reading was falsely and fraudulently represented to him to be the true mileage.

On 19 May 1969 Tedrow filed his declaration in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County against Bradford and Deskin, described as the principal owners and stockholders of Tom and Martin Ford, Inc., Harding and Wolf its employees, Collum, Van Veen, Shelton Motors, Inc. (Shelton), and Ford Motor Company. Deskin, Bradford, Wolf, Harding and Shelton filed the ex delicto and the ex contractu general issue pleas and thereafter, on the same day, they filed a motion for summary judgment, stating as grounds therefor:

'1. That the Plaintiff has no valid claim.

'2. That there is no genuine dispute between the parties as to any material fact, and the Plaintiff (sic) is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

'3. That the contract involved here * * * was between the Plaintiff and Tom & Martin Ford, Inc., a corporation, and not between the Plaintiff and the individual defendants Martin Deskin, Thomas M. Bradford, Samuel Wolf and Samuel Harding, Jr.'

4. (Other reasons not now relevant.)

The motion was not supported by an affidavit nor was Tedrow's opposition to it. On 3 April 1970 the trial judge, Miller, J., entered a summary judgment in favor of Ford Motor Company, stating reasons therefor, and in favor of Deskin, Bradford, Wolf and Harding without stating any reason therefor. On 9 April judgment for costs was entered. Collum, Van Veen and Shelton were left in the case. Tedrow timely filed his appeal to this Court.

We dismissed his appeal, Tedrow, supra, because Judge Miller failed to make the 'express(ed) determination that there * * * (was) no just reason for delay' required by Maryland Rule 605 a. Also we entered judgment for costs in favor of Ford Motor Company.

The record does not reveal precisely what happened upon remand. There are only the docket entries, which follow:

'March 19, 1971 Hearing to conform judgment to Court of Appeal's decision before Judge Miller, Mr. Whitman reporting.

'March 19, 1971. Court directs final judgment in favor of Ford Motor Company, Martin Deskin, Thomas M. Bradford, Samuel Wolf and Samuel Harding, Jr.

'March 19, 1971 Court enters final judgment in favor of Ford Motor Company as Summary Judgment.

'March 19, 1971 Court enters judgment against plaintiff in favor of Ford Motor Company for costs.

'March 19, 1971 Judgment in favor of the Defendant, Ford Motor Company, for costs.'

We do not understand the purport of the entries in respect of the judgments in favor of Ford Motor Company but we shall treat them as surplusage because that judgment was entered in this Court, making any further action unnecessary. Rule 875. One thing is clear, however; i. e., there is nothing in these docket entries indicating that Judge Miller made the 'expressed determination' required by Rule 605 a, which, of course, is the reason we dismissed the appeal and remanded the case. Since the claims against Collum, Van Veen and Shelton remained unadjudicated it surely follows that the 'final' judgments of 19 March 1971 in favor of Deskin, Bradford, Wolf and Harding were no more final and appealable than were the judgments of 9 April 1970.

After the entry of the judgments in March 1971 Tedrow seems to have contented himself with quiet estivation. He was aroused in November by a notice from the assignment office that his case had been set for trial on 24 November, on which day he caused the case to be 'dismissed without prejudice' as to Collum, Van Veen and Shelton. We shall assume, without deciding, that the 30 day period within which an appeal to this Court must have been taken began to run on that date, since there were no longer any unadjudicated claims left in the case. On 14 December, well within the time allowed, he filed this appeal.

The appellees have responded only with a motion to dismiss on the ground that the appeal was not filed within 30 days from 19 March. Obviously the motion must be denied.

Tedrow argues here, as he argued in Tedrow, that the summary judgment was granted erroneously and there seems to be something in what he says. Judge Miller did not say, either in April 1970 or in March 1971, why he granted the motion for summary judgment in favor of the appellees. We shall assume, since it seems likely, that he thought the individual defendants could not be held responsible for the acts of the corporation, Tom and Martin Ford, Inc. The cases suggest that the law may be somewhat different.

The general rule is that corporate officers or agents are personally liable for those torts which they personally commit, or which they inspire or participate in, even though performed in the name of an artificial body. Fletcher v. Western Nat. Life Ins. Co., 10 Cal.App.3d 376, 89 Cal.Rptr. 78 (1970); Miller v. Simon, 100 Ill.App.2d 6, 241 N.E.2d 697 (1968); Pacific & Atlantic Shippers, Inc. v. Schier, 109 N.H. 551, 258 A.2d 351 (1969); McGlynn v. Schultz, 95 N.J.Super. 412, 231 A.2d 386 (1967); Faulk v....