Court Opinion

ID: 9753919
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:35:11.980158+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:45.195316
License: Public Domain

HARRELL, J.,
dissenting.
I dissent, for at least two reasons. Principally, I agree with the reasoning and result reached by the Court of Special Appeals, as explained in Judge Matricianni’s reported opinion, D’Aoust v. Diamond, 197 Md.App. 195, 13 A.3d 43 (2010). Second, the Majority Opinion here raises the question (on the Court’s initiative) and decides that qualified public official immunity also is unavailable as a defense by the trustees (or derivatively by their law firm), a question which the Majority opinion all but concedes was not briefed or argued by the parties below (or here) and certainly was not decided by either the trial court or our intermediate appellate court brethren. See Maj. op. at 563 n. 4, 36 A.3d at 949 n. 4 (“We note that the doctrine of qualified public official immunity was not specifically raised by Petitioner in her petition for writ of certiorari, nor was this doctrine discussed by the parties in their briefs to this Court. For purposes of clarifying the issues presented, however, we discuss and analyze the concepts of both absolute judicial immunity and qualified public official immunity .... ”), *610and 30-31 (“[T]he parties, the trial court, and the intermediate appellate court in this case have focused on the concept of qualified judicial immunity....”). This is not the sort of instance where we should be deciding a question not presented by the parties, -without giving them a chance to brief and argue the point decided.
I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals.