Opinion ID: 1908722
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Plaintiff's Post-Judgment Motions

Text: Finally, we determine whether the Circuit Court erred in denying Appellants' post-judgment motions seeking to amend their complaints. The applicable standard of review is whether the Circuit Court abused its discretion. Renbaum v. Custom Holding, Inc., 386 Md. 28, 42-43, 871 A.2d 554, 563 (2005). Rule 2-534 of the Maryland Rules provides: In an action decided by the court, on motion of any party filed within ten days after entry of judgment, the court may open the judgement to receive additional evidence, may amend its findings or its statement of reasons for the decision, may set forth additional findings or reasons, may enter new findings or new reasons, may amend the judgement, or may enter a new judgment. The Circuit Court has broad discretion whether to grant motions to alter or amend filed within ten days of the entry of judgment. Its discretion is to be applied liberally so that a technicality does not triumph over justice. Bd. of Nursing v. Nechay, 347 Md. 396, 408, 701 A.2d 405, 411 (1997) (Citations omitted). We stated in Board of Nursing v. Nechay that whether the court entertained a reasonable doubt that justice had not been done is an appropriate basis for the exercise of that discretion. Id. (citing Henley v. Prince George's County, 305 Md. 320, 328, 503 A.2d 1333, 1337 (1986); J.B. Corp. v. Fowler, 258 Md. 432, 434-36, 265 A.2d 876, 877-78 (1970); Clarke Baridon v. Union Asbestos & Rubber Co., 218 Md. 480, 483, 147 A.2d 221, 222-23 (1958)). Rule 2-535(a) provides that, generally, [o]n motion of any party filed within 30 days after entry of judgment, the court may exercise revisory power and control over the judgment and, if the action was tried before the court, may take any action that it could have taken under Rule 2-534. Rule 2-535(b) provides that [o]n motion of any party filed at any time, the court may exercise revisory power and control over the judgment in case of fraud, mistake, or irregularity. Here, Appellants filed their first motion to alter or amend the judgment on 2 July 2004, seven days after the Circuit Court entered its order on 25 June 2004 that their claims be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Appellants filed their Second Motion to Alter/Amend the Judgement on 13 September 2004  more than 30 days after entry of the court's pertinent judgment. The court denied both motions. Rule 2-534 is not implicated by the second motion to alter or amend because that motion was not filed within ten days of the entry of judgment. With regard to Rule 2-535(a), which applies to the court's power to revise its judgments generally, Appellants' second motion was filed more than 30 days after the entry of judgment. Thus, Rule 2-535(a) is not implicated. Because Appellants did not allege facts in their second motion that evince fraud, mistake, or irregularity, the second motion moreover is not one filed pursuant to Rule 2-535(b), which allows such a motion to be filed at any time. See also Pickett v. Noba, Inc., 122 Md.App. 566, 573, 714 A.2d 212, 215 (1998), cert. denied, 351 Md. 663, 719 A.2d 1262 (1998) (concluding that a second motion to revise the judgment that did not claim fraud, mistake, or irregularity and filed more than thirty days after the entry of judgment, even though within thirty days after denial of the first motion, cannot be granted). Thus, the trial court acted within its discretion in denying Appellants' second motion. The first motion to alter or amend advanced three proposed additional allegations to be added to Appellants' already much-amended complaints: (1) that each plaintiff has suffered actual injury related to the matters in the complaint; (2) defendants engaged in antitrust activity and/or unlawfully exercised anti-competitive power; and (3) defendants engaged in a threatened and/or actual monopoly by their imposition of the telephone commission. We conclude that these additional allegations to alter or amend would not have changed the trial court's judgment. Therefore, the Circuit Court did not abuse its discretion in denying the first motion because the allegations contained therein did not supply reasonable doubt that justice had not been done by the court's judgment. The first additional allegation, that Dean suffered actual injury, would not change the outcome of the case because, even had the court considered the allegation, it would have dismissed Dean's complaint nonetheless for the same reasons that it dismissed Benson's complaint. We know this to be so because the court dismissed Benson's complaint, where it had been properly alleged that she suffered actual injury. Benson's complaint was nearly identical to Dean's complaint. The second and third new allegations regarding Appellants' antitrust claims would also not change the outcome of the case because the new allegations would not impact the trial court's reasoning. The court concluded that the antitrust claims were barred by sovereign immunity, among other reasons. It therefore dismissed Appellants' antitrust claims. Even had the court considered the second new, wholly conclusory allegation, that defendants engaged in antitrust activity and/or unlawfully exercised anti-competitive power, or the third new allegation, that defendants engaged in a threatened and/or actual monopoly by their imposition of the telephone commission, it nonetheless would have dismissed the claims based on sovereign immunity principles. JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE CITY AFFIRMED; COSTS TO BE DIVIDED EQUALLY BY APPELLANTS.