Opinion ID: 1507214
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lack of Capacity to Sue

Text: As we have noted, Friendship Heights was constituted a special tax district by the General Assembly in 1914. Montgomery County Code (1965) § 66-1 describes the area. By § 66-2, the Montgomery County Council is empowered to levy a tax of ten cents on each $100.00 of assessable value, which is to be paid over to the treasurer of the Committee, to be used for:    opening, improving, widening, maintaining, repairing and lighting the streets, roads, lanes, alleys, sidewalks, parking, drainage, sewerage, sanitation and other village improvements, and for furnishing police and fire protection, clerical and other public service, including the removal of ashes, garbage and other refuse and the disposal thereof. An additional tax of not more than 30 cents per $100.00 may be imposed by the County Council upon petition of the Committee or upon application by resident taxpayers under § 66-3. The election and removal of members of the Committee are provided for by §§ 66-4 and 66-5. The general powers given the Committee by § 66-9 (a) include only the power,    to grade, pave, macadamize or otherwise improve any existing dedicated street, road or lane, or any county road, street or lane, within the said special taxing area which has been or which may hereafter be acquired and opened for public use and to lay sidewalks and curbs thereon, and, subject to the approval of the county council of Montgomery County   . and to impose an assessment on the owners of abutting properties under § 66-9 (b) if two-thirds of them consent. While the Committee is empowered to make certain public improvements, nowhere is it expressly given the power to sue and be sued. It is not vested with any planning or zoning function nor are regulatory powers conferred upon it. It is a special tax district, specifically excluded by Art. 23A, § 9 (a) from the definition of a municipal corporation, which has an unlimited power to sue and be sued only because it is expressly so empowered by Art. 23A, § 1. We are not to be understood, however, as passing on the question whether the Committee has the power to sue for the breach of a contract to construct a road, which might be implied from the express power which was granted it, cf. McRobie v. Town of Westernport, 260 Md. 464, 466, 272 A.2d 655 (1971); Perry v. Board of Appeals, 211 Md. 294, 303, 127 A.2d 507 (1956), or whether it could sue or be sued under Code (1957, 1966 Repl. Vol.) Art. 23, § 138 in an action affecting the tax moneys paid to it.