Williams v. Maynard, 132

• Citation: 359 Md. 379,754 A.2d 379
• Decision Date: 06 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 132,132
• Parties: John R. WILLIAMS, Jr. v. Thomas Edward MAYNARD et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

754 A.2d 379

359 Md. 379

John R. WILLIAMS, Jr. v. Thomas Edward MAYNARD et al.

No. 132, Sept. Term, 1998.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 6, 2000.

Stuart H. Arnovits (Cohen, Snyder, Eisenberg & Katzenberg, P.A., on brief), Baltimore, for petitioner.

Karen L. Federman Henry, Principal Counsel for Appeals, Division of Special Projects (Charles W. Thompson, Jr., County Atty., and Joann Robertson, Chief, Division of Litigation, on brief), Rockville, for respondents.

Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW¹, RAKER, WILNER and CATHELL, JJ.

ELDRIDGE, Judge.

Under the Local Government Tort Claims Act (LGTCA), Maryland Code (1974, 1998 Repl.Vol., 1999 Supp.), §§ 5-301 through 5-304 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, Maryland counties and other entities defined therein as "local governments" are, inter alia, responsible for paying, up to certain limits, judgments for compensatory damages rendered against their employees based on tortious acts committed in the scope of employment. In addition, the LGTCA generally requires that "an action for unliquidated damages may not be brought against a local government or its employees" unless the plaintiff first provides written notice of his or her claim to the local government "within 180 days after the injury." See § 5-304.²

Prior to the enactment of the LGTCA, a similarly worded notice requirement had been in effect for decades as an independent statute, most recently codified as Code (1974, 1984 Repl.Vol., 1986 Cum. Supp.), § 5-306 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, but this notice requirement referred only to tort actions brought against counties and municipal corporations. It did not pertain to actions brought against employees or the numerous entities, which are neither counties nor municipal corporations, defined as local governments for the purposes of the LGTCA.³ When the LGTCA was enacted by Ch. 594 of the Acts of 1987, § 5-306 was repealed.

This case presents the issue of whether the failure to comply with the LGTCA's notice requirement precludes the maintenance of a tort action against a local government when that tort action is authorized by Code (1977, 1999 Repl.Vol.), § 17-107(c) of the Transportation Article and Code (1974, 1998 Repl.Vol.), § 5-524 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, which were enacted prior to the enactment of the LGTCA and which partially waive governmental immunity without expressly requiring that any notice of a claim be given to a local government.⁴

I.

This case arose out of a traffic accident which occurred in Montgomery County on August 9, 1994, between a motor vehicle driven by the petitioner, John Williams, Jr., and a vehicle owned by Montgomery County and operated by county employee Thomas Maynard.⁵ As a result of the accident, Williams's vehicle was damaged and he sustained personal injuries.

On August 16, 1994, the law firm retained by Williams contacted the claims supervisor for Consolidated Risk Management Services regarding the accident. Consolidated Risk Management Services was, at that time, the claims administrator for Montgomery County, which was self-insured pursuant to § 17-103 of the Transportation Article. The claims supervisor informed the representative of the law firm that the supervisor already possessed some information about the accident and requested that the law firm send a letter of representation to his attention. That same day, exactly one week after the accident, Williams's attorney wrote a letter to the claims supervisor formally notifying him of the claim. The claim was acknowledged by the claims supervisor in a return letter dated August 24, 1994.

Over a two-year period following the accident, Williams and his attorneys corresponded several times with representatives of Consolidated Risk Management Services and its successor, Trigon Administrators, Inc., regarding Williams's claim. Pursuant to the request of the claims administrators for Montgomery County, Williams provided medical reports and bills, his description of the accident, and a signed medical authorization to enable them to investigate the claim. He also submitted a notice of a workers' compensation lien. During June 1996 and subsequent months, Trigon engaged in settlement negotiations with Williams, who rejected the final settlement offer proposed by Trigon in December 1996.

In March 1997 Williams filed suit in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County against Maynard and Montgomery County, seeking $100,000 in damages allegedly caused by Maynard's negligence. Maynard, who had resided in Prince George's County at the time of the accident, had subsequently moved out of state and was never served. Montgomery County, arguing that Prince George's County was an inconvenient forum, successfully moved for transfer of the case to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County pursuant to Maryland Rule 2-327(c).

Although Williams had amended his initial complaint to allege compliance with the notice requirement of § 5-304 of the LGTCA, the County moved to dismiss the amended complaint on the ground that Williams had failed to comply with § 5-304. The County asserted that he had not given notice directly to the County Executive of Montgomery County within 180 days after the accident, and that he had not shown substantial compliance or good cause to excuse his failure to provide notice. The County's motion was accompanied by an affidavit from the Chief of the Division of Risk Management in the Montgomery County Office of Finance. The affidavit stated that the Division's files contained information about Williams's claim and contained correspondence from Williams or his representative. The affidavit went on to state that this correspondence had been addressed to "Consolidated Risk Management Services" which "performed claims administration work for Montgomery County" but had not been addressed to either the Division or the County Executive.

Williams responded by asserting that the notice requirement set forth in the LGTCA was not applicable to the statutory waiver of governmental immunity effected by § 17-107(c) of the Transportation Article and § 5-524 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, and that, insofar as Montgomery County was liable under § 17-107(c) and § 5-524 as owner of the vehicle driven by Maynard, the County's governmental immunity had been waived to the extent of the required security which it had provided to the Motor Vehicle Administration pursuant to § 17-103. Alternatively, Williams argued that he had substantially complied with the notice requirement of the LGTCA. Finally, Williams contended that there was good cause for failing to comply strictly with the notice requirement and that the County could not show that it had been prejudiced thereby. After holding a hearing on the County's motion to dismiss Williams's amended complaint, and considering the statements in the affidavit, the Circuit Court granted the motion to dismiss. The court ruled that Williams had failed to provide the requisite notice to Montgomery County as set forth in § 5-304 of the LGTCA, had not complied substantially with § 5-304, and had failed to show good cause for his failure to comply.

Williams appealed to the Court of Special Appeals which affirmed. Williams v. Montgomery County, 123 Md.App. 119, 716 A.2d 1100 (1998). Preliminarily, the Court of Special Appeals pointed out that the trial court had in effect treated the County's motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment, and had in effect granted summary judgment pursuant to Maryland Rule 2-322(c).⁶ The intermediate appellate court went on to hold that § 5-304 of the LGTCA was applicable to a motor vehicle tort action brought under § 17-107(c) of the Transportation Article and § 5-524 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. In response to Williams's contention that notice to the County was not required in an action brought under §§ 17-107(c) and 5-524, the appellate court stressed that the "unambiguous" language of § 5-304 of the LGTCA mandates that "an action for unliquidated damages may not be brought against a local government" unless the requisite notice is provided, absent a showing of good cause and a failure to show prejudice. 123 Md.App. at 130, 716 A.2d at 1105. The court noted that, unlike the claim-filing requirement of the Maryland Tort Claims Act, Code (1984, 1999 Repl. Vol.), §§ 12-101 through 12-110 of the State Government Article, § 5-304 is not restricted in its applicability to "an action under this subtitle." See § 12-106(b) of the State Government Article. Accordingly, the Court of Special Appeals was not persuaded that this case was analogous to those decided by this Court and the Court of Special Appeals regarding the inapplicability of the Maryland Tort Claim Act's claim-filing requirement to tort actions which were not brought under that Act. Williams v. Montgomery County, supra, 123 Md.App. at 128-130, 716 A.2d at 1104-1105, citing State v. Harris, 327 Md. 32, 607 A.2d 552 (1992); Collier v. Nesbitt, 79 Md.App. 729, 558 A.2d 1242 (1989).

The Court of Special Appeals also held that Williams did not substantially comply with § 5-304, reasoning that his case was similar to that of the plaintiffs in Loewinger v. Prince George's County, 266 Md. 316, 292 A.2d 67 (1972), who, according to the Court's opinion, did not substantially comply with the notice requirement despite their prompt notification of their claim to the alleged tortfeasor county agency and its insurer. Finally, the intermediate appellate court held that Williams had failed to show good cause justifying his lack of compliance.

Williams timely filed a petition for writ of certiorari which we granted. Williams v. Maynard, 352 Md. 310, 721 A.2d 989 (1998). The certiorari petition raised a single question for review by this Court, namely whether the Court of Special Appeals erred by holding that the notice requirement in the...