Opinion ID: 2557276
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bayly's Standing to File an Appeal

Text: Before reaching the questions for which we issued the writ of certiorari, we consider briefly the issue of the standing of Bayly, as a defunct limited liability company (LLC), to participate as a petitioner in the Court of Special Appeals and here. The Court of Special Appeals noted that Bayly forfeited its charter before the appeal to that court was filed. Bayly Crossing, 188 Md.App. at 318, 981 A.2d at 788. As a result, it concluded that Bayly ceased to exist as a cognizable legal entity and, thus, lacked standing to appeal. Bayly Crossing, 188 Md.App. at 318-19, 981 A.2d at 788 (2009). Bayly was dismissed as a party. See id. On 20 November 2009, the Passyns alone filed a petition for certiorari, asking us to consider the two questions noted supra at 135-36, 9 A.3d 4, 8, neither of which challenged Bayly's dismissal as a party. Thereafter, the Court of Special Appeals, collaterally and uniquely, revisited and commented on in Price its earlier decision to dismiss Bayly. It conceded in Price, a case unrelated to its decision in Bayly otherwise, that the statutes treat an LLC differently from a corporation, as regards their respective legal identity and status upon charter forfeiture, a distinction not addressed in its opinion in Bayly. While Section 3-503(d) of the Corporations and Associations Article of the Md.Code provides that, if a corporation fails to file an annual tax report, its charter is repealed, annulled and forfeited, Section 4A-920 of the same Article states that an LLC remains in existence, even after charter forfeiture, but only for certain limited purposes, including (of argued relevance here) defending a law suit. Nonetheless, the intermediate appellate court reaffirmed in Price its decision in Bayly to dismiss Bayly, calling that decision not erroneous because, by filing an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, Bayly was prosecuting, rather than defending, an action. Price, 192 Md.App. at 709, 995 A.2d at 1062. On 20 July 2010, after Price was filed, Petitioners filed a motion with this Court to add Bayly as a petitioner and to supplement their brief to address the Court of Special Appeal's analysis ... in the [ Price ] case. They made clear in the motion, however, that they were not asking to add any other questions or issues for [our] consideration. We granted that motion, but improvidently, so we now find that, whatever the merits of their arguments, Petitioners did not preserve properly the issue for our consideration. Md. Rule. 8-131(b)(1). They did not pose in their petition for certiorari a question regarding Bayly's dismissal. Their subsequent motion did not seek to add a question in that regard. To permit Petitioners, by motion, to add a petitioner and argue the law regarding a question not raised in the petition for certiorari sanctions an end-around maneuver that we, albeit in hindsight, should not foster. We shall not consider further here the Court of Special Appeals's views on Bayly's (or any other defunct LLC's) ability to participate in an appeal as an LLC after its charter is forfeit. Our consideration of the actual questions presented is not hampered thereby because the Passyns have standing to maintain the appeal in both appellate courts. See Garner v. Archers Glen, 405 Md. 43, 55, 949 A.2d 639, 646 (2008) ([W]e ordinarily do not decide issues of standing where it is undisputed that one party on each side of the litigation has standing.).