Opinion ID: 2402652
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Fourth and Fifth Counts

Text: In the Commissioner's consolidated decision of June 1, 1962, he included a so-called Fourth Count, stating that the Department had received a cancelled check, payable to the AA Agency, from a Mr. Powell; that no policy of insurance had ever been delivered to Mr. Powell by that company, and that a letter to the AA Agency demanding an explanation of the situation remained unanswered. In his Fifth Count, the Commissioner stated that an inquiry at the office of the National Mutual Insurance Company of Maryland, Inc. showed that the AA Agency had been holding itself out as an insurance broker in the State of Maryland during the month of May, 1962 and had taken applications for insurance and collected premiums without being licensed so to do. No notice of a hearing on either of these matters was ever given to the Nugers or to the AA Agency and no hearing on either of the matters was held. Notice of charges in connection with proposed suspension or revocating of licenses and a hearing on the charges were expressly provided for in Section 111, and in any case are required by fundamental principles of fairness in administrative procedures. Ulman v. Baltimore, 72 Md. 587, 20 Atl. 141 (1890). See Cassidy v. Board of Appeals, 218 Md. 418, 421, 146 A.2d 896 (1958); Cohen, Some Aspects of Maryland Administrative Law, 24 Md.L.Rev. 1, 8-15 (1964). Any action in respect of the charges referred to in these Counts was nugatory.