Opinion ID: 1979656
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Fraudulent Concealment and Intentional Failure to Warn

Text: The essential elements for a claim of fraudulent concealment include: (1) the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff to disclose a material fact; (2) the defendant failed to disclose that fact; (3) the defendant intended to defraud or deceive the plaintiff; (4) the plaintiff took action in justifiable reliance on the concealment; and (5) the plaintiff suffered damages as a result of the defendant's concealment. Green v. H & R Block, 355 Md. 488, 525, 735 A.2d 1039, 1059 (1999). Fraudulent Concealment is any statement or other conduct which prevents another from acquiring knowledge of a fact, such as diverting the attention of a prospective buyer from a defect which otherwise, he would have observed. [11] A fraudulent concealment claim is caused, in part, by the intentional failure to warn. As this Court explained in Frederick Road Limited Partnership v. Brown & Sturm, 360 Md. 76, n. 14, 756 A.2d 963, 976, n. 14, citing Impala Platinum, Ltd. v. Impala Sales (U.S.A.), Inc., 283 Md. 296, 323-24, 389 A.2d 887, 904 (1978): Absent a fiduciary relationship, this Court has held that a plaintiff seeking to establish fraudulent concealment must prove that the defendant took affirmative action to conceal the cause of action and that the plaintiff could not have discovered the cause of action despite the exercise of reasonable diligence, see, Walsh v. Edwards, 233 Md. 552, 557, 197 A.2d 424, 426-27 (1964); Fegeas v. Sherrill, 218 Md. 472, 476, 147 A.2d 223, 225-26 (1958), and that, in such cases, the affirmative act on the part of the defendant must be more than mere silence; there must be some act intended to exclude suspicion and prevent injury, or there must be a duty on the part of the defendant to disclose such facts, if known. Impala, supra, 283 Md. at 323-24, 389 A.2d at 904. With regard to the fraudulent concealment claim, the Court of Special Appeals specifically stated that, because no injury has occurred, appellants are unable to assert that they have suffered damages as a result of any concealment of the alleged defect. The court further held that, [e]ven assuming arguendo that a `pre-injury' lawsuit is recognized in Maryland, [the trial court] correctly dismissed appellant's tort-based claims . . . by concluding that `the economic loss doctrine would not support the cause of action being sought by the plaintiff in this case.' Id. (slip op. at 16-17). This court is aware of no reason, nor has one been presented to it, that, so long as sufficient allegations of a serious risk of bodily harm or death has been made, under the Whiting-Turner analysis, why the petitioners should be barred from asserting a claim for economic loss resulting from fraudulent concealment. The Court of Special Appeals' decision to affirm summary judgment regarding the fraudulent concealment claims, therefore, is reversed.