Court Opinion

ID: 9712436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:53:50.209168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:12.166692
License: Public Domain

Davidson, J.,

dissenting:

The record here shows that the plaintiffs filed a class action seeking a declaratory judgment that § 311A of the Montgomery County Charter was valid. In addition, the plaintiffs sought, in pertinent part: 1) a declaratory judgment that the defendants had violated § 311A; 2) writs of mandamus and injunctions requiring the defendants to comply with § 311A; and 3) monetary damages resulting from the alleged violation of § 311 A. The defendants filed a *463"counterclaim” seeking a declaratory judgment that § 311A was invalid. The defendants moved for "a separate trial on the issue of law created by the counterclaim,” and the plaintiffs agreed to this procedure. After granting the motion, the trial court declared that § 311A was invalid and ordered that the declaratory judgment be entered as a final judgment under Maryland Rule 605 a.
The majority here holds that this appeal must be dismissed under Rule 605 a because the trial court "did not dispose of an entire claim in this case.” In essence, the majority holds that the trial court’s declaratory judgment that § 311A was invalid did not constitute a final judgment because it did not expressly state that: 1) the defendants had not violated § 311A; 2) the requested writs of mandamus and injunctions requiring the defendants to comply with § 311A were denied; and 3) the requested monetary damages resulting from the alleged violation of § 311A were denied.
I agree with the majority that under Rule 605 a a trial court is authorized to enter a final judgment only when the judgment disposes of an entire claim. I further agree with the majority that the defendants’ counterclaim and the plaintiffs’ requests for relief, based on § 311A, constituted one claim. In my view, however, the trial court’s judgment declaring that § 311A was invalid disposed of the entire claim relating to § 311A. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
Logic and common sense dictate that implicit in the trial court’s determination that § 311A was invalid is the inevitable conclusion that there was no remediable violation of that section and, therefore, that the requested writs of mandamus and injunctions requiring the defendants to comply, as well as the requested monetary damages, were denied. In essence, by determining that § 311A was invalid, the trial court, of necessity, determined that the plaintiffs were not entitled to any relief.
The majority’s interpretation of Rule 605 a is unsupported by Maryland precedent. The majority does not cite any case in which this Court has previously held that in order for a *464judgment to be final under Rule 605 a it is necessary for the trial court to expressly state not only that the defendants win, but also that the plaintiffs lose.
In addition, the majority’s interpretation of Rule 605 a is unsupported by policy considerations. Ordinarily, in a multiple claims action, an appeal may be filed only from a final judgment on all claims. The purpose of Rule 605 a is to permit some degree of flexibility with respect to the time when an appeal may be filed from a decision upon one or more but less than all of the claims in a multiple claims action. To achieve this purpose, Rule 605 a authorizes the trial court, in its discretion, to expedite an appeal upon one or more but less than all claims in a multiple claims action when necessary to avoid hardship or unfairness arising from the ordinary final judgment rule. Lewis v. Lewis, 290 Md. 175, 181, 428 A.2d 454, 457 (1981); Lang v. Catterton, 267 Md. 268, 276-77, 297 A.2d 735, 740 (1972); Diener Enterprises, Inc. v. Miller, 266 Md. 551, 554, 295 A.2d 470, 472 (1972).
Here the trial court appropriately exercised its discretion to expedite an appeal on the single claim relating to the validity of § 311A. To dismiss this appeal for the purpose of requiring the trial court to enter an order expressly stating that there was no remediable violation of § 311A and that the requested writs of mandamus, injunctions, and monetary damages were, therefore, denied results in unnecessary delay and expense.
I will not join with the majority in its archaic and arcane interpretation of Rule 605 a. Such an interpretation both defeats the rule’s purpose and portends an atavistic return to the rigidity and harshness of common law pleading, practice, and procedure. Modern-day procedure, with its emphasis upon reduction in the time and cost of litigation, mandates a more sophisticated, yet more practical, approach.
In my view, under Rule 605 a, this Court has jurisdiction to determine this case. Accordingly, I would not dismiss the appeal.