Opinion ID: 2002495
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unqualified Final Disposition

Text: With exceptions not relevant here, a ruling of a circuit court is not appealable unless it constitutes a final judgment. To have the attribute of finality, the ruling must be so final as either to determine and conclude the rights involved or to deny the appellant the means of further prosecuting or defending his or her rights and interests in the subject matter of the proceeding. In re Buckler Trusts, 144 Md. 424, 125 A. 177 (1924); Cant v. Bartlett, 292 Md. 611, 440 A.2d 388 (1982); Sigma Repro. Health Cen. v. State, 297 Md. 660, 467 A.2d 483 (1983). To be final and conclusive in that sense, the ruling must necessarily be unqualified and complete, except as to something that would be regarded as collateral to the proceeding. It must leave nothing more to be done in order to effectuate the court's disposition of the matter. In the first instance, that becomes a question of the court's intention: did the court intend its ruling to be the final, conclusive, ultimate disposition of the matter? On several occasions recently, this Court, in considering whether a particular order or ruling constituted an appealable judgment, looked to whether the order or ruling was unqualified, whether there was any contemplation that a further order [was to] be issued or that anything more [was to] be done. Walbert v. Walbert, 310 Md. 657, 661, 531 A.2d 291, 293 (1987); Doehring v. Wagner, 311 Md. 272, 275, 533 A.2d 1300, 1301-02 (1987); cf. Makovi v. Sherwin-Williams Co., 311 Md. 278, 281, 533 A.2d 1303, 1305 (1987). In a footnote in Doehring, 311 Md. at 277 n. 2, 533 A.2d at 1303 n. 2, we noted that if the judge did not intend that his ruling ... finally terminate the litigation..., it would not constitute a final judgment. Cited for that proposition was Dawson's Charter Serv. v. Chin, 68 Md. App. 433, 511 A.2d 1138 (1986), where the Court of Special Appeals, speaking through Judge Adkins, held expressly that a direction by the court that an order is to be submitted constituted a direction to the clerk not to enter judgment until the order had been signed and filed. Id. at 438, 511 A.2d at 1141. Lest there be any lingering question about the matter, we now make clear that, whenever the court, whether in a written opinion or in remarks from the bench, indicates that a written order embodying the decision is to follow, a final judgment does not arise prior to the signing and filing of the anticipated order unless (1) the court subsequently decides not to require the order and directs the entry of judgment in some other appropriate manner or (2) the order is intended to be collateral to the judgment. Because of the different circumstances in which a QDRO may prove necessary, it is not essential that such an order be part of the judgment in the action. For one thing, the Federal law does not require that a QDRO be part of the actual judgment in the case. It defines a domestic relations order as including any judgment ... or order ... that meets the other requirements for such an order. Plan administrators are presumably not interested in receiving multi-faceted divorce decrees specifying such matters as custody, visitation, support, and the like. Their only interest is in those matters set forth in 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(3) and 26 U.S.C. § 414(p), supra. From the point of view of State law, where a QDRO is needed to enforce an earlier entered support order, it obviously cannot be part of the underlying judgment. Even when the QDRO is required to effectuate a disposition under Md.Fam.Law Code Ann. § 8-205, there may be circumstances where the need for the order may not be apparent at the time the judgment is entered or where an order entered as part of a judgment has to be modified later because some deficiency in it precludes it from being accepted as a QDRO. We therefore expressly recognize the ability of a party otherwise entitled to a QDRO to obtain one as an aid to enforcing a previously entered judgment. In this case, however, the QDRO's were not intended to be collateral to the judgment or simply as aids to enforcing it. Throughout her remarks, Judge Bell made clear that the judgment she was purporting to enter would not be final and complete until the individual QDRO's were signed. In that regard, the docket entry made by the clerk, ORDER TO BE SUBMITTED, is entirely consistent with what the judge envisioned. In this circumstance, then, the general rule we have announced is applicable and the rulings of July 13 did not constitute a final judgment because they were not intended to be final and conclusive. [6] The failure of counsel to submit the proposed QDRO's within the time prescribed by Judge Bell, or even within 30 days of her oral rulings, does not alter that fact. The final, effective determination by the court did not come until September 2, when the court, on jurisdictional grounds, declined even to consider the proposed orders. That was the one and final act which, if not actually concluding the rights of the parties, at least denied Mrs. Rohrbeck the means of further prosecuting her rights in the circuit court.