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Maryland Premises Liability: Pit Bull Owners and Landlords Strictly Liable for Dog Bites
May 11th, 2012
In Dorothy M. Tracey v. Anthony K. Solesky, et al., No. 53, Sept. Term 2012 (Md. Apr. 26, 2012), a 4-3 majority opinion, the Maryland Court of Appeals modified the common law liability principles that previously applied and established a strict liability standard against owners and landlords for harboring or control in case…
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Categories: Maryland
Maryland workers’ compensation: causal relationship required to relate a second injury to original
May 7th, 2012
A recent Maryland Court of Special Appeals decision, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority v. Williams, 2012 Md. App. LEXIS 46 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 2012) has clarified the status of the law in Maryland with respect to the causal relationship required to demonstrate that a second injury (which is not physically relat…
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Insurance coverage action in Maryland dismissed based on abstention
April 29th, 2012
In Evanston Insurance Company v. Dan Ryan Builders, Inc., No. 11-02366 (D. Md. Feb. 13, 2012), the Court granted the insureds' motion to dismiss an insurer's declaratory judgment action, finding in favor of abstention based on parallel litigation pending in state court. The defendants were Maryland contractors who…
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Lawyers Professional Liability - Unreported administrative error results in disclaimer of coverage
April 16th, 2012
In Minnesota Lawyers Mut. Ins. Co. v. Baylor & Jackson, PLLC, No. 10-2701 (D. Md. Apr. 3, 2012), the District Court granted summary judgment to the insurer, holding that the insurer is not liable to defend or indemnify the defendant law firm under an LPL policy. The Court awarded summary judgment based on the finding th…
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Claims for Negligent Title Search by Title Company are Limited to Breach of Contract in Maryland
April 11th, 2012
In Columbia Town Center Title Co., et al., v. 100 Inv. Ltd. P’ship, et al., No., 0915 Sept. Term 2009 (Feb. 2, 2012), the Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court for Howard County. The Court held that in cases where a title company performs a title examination merely in order to issue…
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Maryland Workers’ Compensation Defense: Court rejects special mission exception
March 11th, 2012
In Garrity v. IWIF, No. 1185, September Term, 2010 (Md. App. February 9, 2012), appellant was a part-time bailiff at the District Court for Baltimore City, where he was involved in an automobile accident as he was returning to the courthouse. Appellant had already arrived at work earlier in the morning but realized the tie…
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Police civil liability: Maryland federal court grants summary judgment in racial profiling case
February 22nd, 2012
On February 7, 2012 the U.S. District Court of Maryland issued a memorandum opinion granting summary judgment to the defendant police officers in a civil lawsuit alleging liability for unlawful arrest (allegedly due to racial considerations). Santos v. Frederick County Board of Commissioners, No. L-09-2978 (D. Md. Feb. 7, 2…
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Commercial ambulances not shielded by the Maryland Good Samaritan Act or the Fire and Rescue Act
February 16th, 2012
In Murray v. Transcare Maryland, Inc., No. 1791, Sept. Term 2010 (Feb. 9, 2012), the Court of Special Appeals held that a private for-profit ambulance service is not subject to Maryland’s Good Samaritan Act (Md. Courts and Jud Code Ann. § 5-603) or to the Fire and Rescue Act (§ 5-604). Both statutes are desi…
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Professional liability: 4th Circuit finds insurer required to defend Maryland accounting firm
February 6th, 2012
In Trice, Geary & Myers, LLC v. Camico Mutual Ins. Co., No. 10-1473 (4th Cir. Dec. 22, 2011 (unpublished), an accounting firm appealed the district court's award of summary judgment to their insurer in a declaratory judgment concerning insurance coverage. The 4th Circuit reversed. The district court had awarded sum…
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Allocation of lead paint poisoning liability under Maryland law
February 5th, 2012
In Pennsylvania Nat. Mut. Cas. Ins. Co. v. Roberts, No. 10-1987 (4th Cir. Feb. 3, 2012), the Court considered an insurer's allocation of liability, under Maryland law, for a $850,000 judgment arising from lead paint poisoning, where the insurer's time on the risk was only a fraction of the plaintiff's exposur…
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