Court Opinion

ID: 9701210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:10:47.57111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:20.921290
License: Public Domain

GARRITY, Judge,
Dissenting
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm on the grounds that the Legislature intended that a mere pro forma order to show cause be filed along with a complaint for forfeiture and supporting affidavit. As the complaint and affidavit were recorded by the clerk as having been timely filed, there was substantial compliance with Md.Code (1957, 1992 Repl.Vol.), Art. 27, § 297(d)(2)(i).
I strongly disagree that the Legislature intended that an “executed” show cause order be filed within the 90 day period following conviction. An applicant has the ability to prepare and file a completed complaint and affidavit, but not to execute a show cause order. The applicant can only submit a proposed, pro forma order to show cause why the relief requested in the complaint, based on evidence in the affidavit, should not be granted.
On the rationale that the General Assembly would not enact legislation requiring parties to perform acts they lack the ability to accomplish, I would hold that the initiation of forfeiture proceedings of money or currency is satisfied by the proper executive authority filing a complaint, affidavit, and proposed show cause order within 90 days following conviction.
The majority, by interpreting Art. 27 § 297(d)(2)(i) as mandating an “executed” show cause order be filed within the 90 day period following conviction, directly and unconstitutionally thrusts the judicial branch into the initiation of forfeiture proceedings, a function that is vested solely in the proper executive authority. The legislative scheme of initiation of such proceedings was simply not designed to be made dependent on the judicial act of signing a show cause order within 90 days following conviction. Granting that the time constraint imposed by the legislature for the institution of proceedings for forfeiture of money or currency is for the benefit of the defendant, I do not believe that we can ignore the fact that *242this time constraint is imposed on the executive officer who files the complaint for forfeiture, not on the court. The executive officer seeking forfeiture must institute proceedings within 90 days after final disposition of criminal proceedings, in default of which the seized currency is returnable to the defendant. Since the executive officer can only include a proposed show cause order, not a judicially executed one, with the complaint for forfeiture, the only logical interpretation of “show cause order” in Art. 27, § 297(d)(2)® and (ii) is that of a proposed order for a judge to sign.
Although the County emphatically pleads that it did in fact timely submit a show cause order form in a document that the clerk recorded as only containing a complaint (and the majority acknowledges that such may have occurred), the County utterly failed to file a motion to correct the record, in accordance with Md. Rule 2-535(d), when it became clearly evident that the docket entries did not reflect the filing of an unexecuted show cause order form on its behalf. As an appellate tribunal, we are limited to consideration of the record before us. Regardless of the tardy protestations of the County, because the record failed to note that a proposed show cause order had been timely submitted on its behalf, we must assume that the show cause order form was not included in the original document filed.
That being said, however, I would affirm on the basis of substantial compliance. There was absolutely no question that the complaint and supporting affidavit were timely filed. There is also no question that Md. Rule 2-101 provides that, “[a] civil action is commenced by filing a complaint with a court.” As Judge Perry, the motion’s judge, apparently did, I would read that rule in conjunction with §§ 297(d)(2) and 297(d)(3)®, and conclude that because the complaint and its supporting affidavit had been filed within the 90 days period after conviction, there was substantial compliance with the statutory procedure to institute a forfeiture proceeding. To hold otherwise would be to place the failure to submit a mere form containing a show cause order on an equal substantive plane with that of filing a complaint.