Court Opinion

ID: 9751373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:22:47.968513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:43.864594
License: Public Domain

HARRELL, J.,
concurring and dissenting.
I disagree with but a single holding of the majority opinion: that the value of Nassifs elective share distribution should include a pro rata portion of the income generated by the decedent’s estate during its administration. Section 3-203 of the Estates and Trusts Article, the governing statute, was silent at the time of the decedent’s death in 1993 as to whether an electing spouse was entitled to interest upon distribution of his or her elective share. The principles of statutory interpretation demonstrate forcibly to me that the surviving spouse’s elective share at the time of decedent’s death was exclusive of estate income. The majority opinion, however, sidesteps this *295conclusion, justifying its contrary view with impuissant1 authority. Although divining legislative intent can be challenging on occasion, the vastly stronger argument in this matter is that Nassifs elective share was exclusive of the decedent’s estate income.
A plain reading of Senate Bill 312-2003 militates against the majority opinion’s conclusion that Nassifs elective share includes income earned on the estate during its administration. The decedent passed on 9 March 1993. At that time (the determinative point of reference for our purposes), the statute was silent as to entitlement to income in this regard. Senate Bill 312 amended § 3-203 in 2003 to include estate income in a surviving spouse’s elective share. This amendment was prospective in effect expressly. Senate Bill 312 provided, “For purposes of this section, a surviving spouse who has elected to take against a will shall be entitled to the surviving spouse’s portion of the income earned on the net estate during the period of administration based on a one-third or one-half share, whichever is applicable.... [T]his act shall be construed to apply only prospectively....” 2003 Md. Laws 234. An elementary principle of statutory construction is to give effect to the plain language of a bill. See, e.g., Md. Ins. Comm’r v. Cent. Acceptance Corp., 424 Md. 1, 36, 33 A.3d 949, 970 (2011) (citing Breslin v. Powell, 421 Md. 266, 286, 26 A.3d 878, 891 (2011)). A statute so adopted should not be construed to have retrospective effect. See, e.g., State v. Stowe, 376 Md. 436, 454, 829 A.2d 1036, 1047 (2003) (quoting State Tax Comm’n v. Potomac Elec. Power Co., 182 Md. 111, 117, 32 A.2d 382, 384 (1943)); Granahan v. Prince George’s Cnty., 326 Md. 346, 357, 605 A.2d 91, 96-97 (1992) (citing Wash. Suburban Sanitary Comm’n v. Riverdale Heights Volunteer Fire Co., 308 Md. 556, 560-64, 520 A.2d 1319, 1321-23 (1987)).
Senate Bill 312 effected a substantive amendment to § 3-203, which supports further that estate income was not included in the elective share in 1993. A substantive amendment to *296a statute is one that establishes the rights of persons. 1A Norman J. Singer and J.D. Shambie Singer, Statutes and Statutory Construction, § 41:4, at 4423 (7th ed.2009) [hereinafter Statutory Construction], Senate Bill 312 was a substantive amendment in this relevant regard because it created for surviving spouses, who elect the statutory share, a right to income generated by the estate during its administration, proportionate to the size of the surviving spouse’s elective share. We have observed that “a substantive amendment to an existing statute indicates an intent to change the meaning of that statute.” In re Criminal Investigation No. 1-162, 307 Md. 674, 689, 516 A.2d 976, 984 (1986) (citations omitted). Further, substantive amendments are presumed to indicate a change in legal rights. Statutory Construction, supra, § 22:30, at 355-56. When the Maryland General Assembly amended § 3-203 in 2003 to include in a surviving spouse’s elective share a pro rata share of estate income generated during its administration, the presumption is that it did so because it disagreed with (or changed its mind as to) the law as it existed prior to the amendment, and intended to create a new legal right. If including estate income was a new legal right, logically, such a right could not have existed at the time of the decedent’s death, which occurred prior to the effective date of the substantive amendment in Senate Bill 312.
The majority opinion circumvents this reasoning by relying on Chesek v. Jones for the proposition that a significant statutory amendment does not evince that the statute was construed differently before the amendment. Chesek, however, is inapposite. It dealt with a clarifying amendment to a statute, whereas Senate Bill 312 was a substantive amendment, for present purposes. As the majority opinion notes, the purpose of the amendment discussed in Chesek was to “resolve any disputes” over subpoena power and to “clarify[ ]” whether that power could be delegated. Chesek v. Jones, 406 Md. 446, 462, 959 A.2d 795, 804 (2008). In contrast, the preamble to Senate Bill 312 stated the purpose of the amendment as “providing that an elective share includes certain income earned on the net estate during the period of adminis*297tration2003 Md. 234 (emphasis added). Further, the floor report for Senate Bill 312 states that one of “the most significant changes” to § 3-203 was “to allow the spouse to be paid a proportionate share of the income earned on the net estate during the period of administration.” Chesek is unpersuasive in the present matter and does not support the majority opinion’s conclusion.
The majority opinion defends further its position that income is included in the elective share in the present case by pointing to two pre-1969 cases. Those cases were superseded, however, in 1969 by Senate Bill 316 of that year. On 24 March 1969, then Governor Marvin Mandel signed into law Senate Bill 316. As the majority opinion notes, the bill repealed, revised, and reorganized the disparate statutes of Maryland estates and trusts law. Shale D. Stiller and Roger D. Redden, Statutory Reform in the Administration of Estates of Maryland Decedents, Minors and Incompetents, 29 Md. L.Rev. 85, 85 (1969). When a legislature revises an entire statutory body of law by repealing former statutes and enacting a new statute, “there is a strong implication of legislative intent to repeal former statutory law and also to supersede the common law relating to the same subject.” Statutory Construction, supra, § 23:13, at 489-90. Therefore, the 1969 amendment, as a substantive and comprehensive revision of Maryland estates and trusts law, rendered inapplicable the antecedent common law relevant to the topic of § 3-203, which itself was revised (but remained silent as to inclusion of income in an elective share). The majority opinion attempts to avoid this construction by quoting selectively from the Summary of Changes Made in Second Report of Governor’s Commission to Review and Revise the Testamentary Laws of Maryland, noting that “ ‘with respect to the widow’s statutory share ... the Commission has decided to retain the present law.’ ” op. at 291, 44 A.3d at 340 (2012). This partial quotation shared with us by the majority opinion is inapposite and misapplied because, when reviewing the full quotation in context, one discovers that it refers to § 3-102 of the Estates and *298Trusts Article, which governs a surviving spouse’s intestate share, not an elective share.
For these reasons, income generated by the deceased’s estate during its administration should be excluded from Nassifs elective share.

. Look it up. No need to thank me for improving your word power.