June 2015 Maryland Certiorari Grants

The Court of Appeals has posted this month’s granted petitions. The questions include bar exam issues like adverse possession, double jeopardy, and collateral estoppel. An interesting petition comes from a driver whose license was suspended for refusing a blood alcohol test after he blew a 0.0 on the breathalyzer. The six granted petitions, along with questions presented, appear after the jump.

Baltimore County, Maryland v. Subsequent Injury Fund, et al. – Case No. 40, September Term, 2015

Issue – Workers’ Compensation – Whether the County, when entitled to a statutory offset against an award issued by the Workers’ Compensation Commission, is obligated to pay the Subsequent Injury Fund Assessment based on the amount of the award before or after the offset is calculated?

Wayne Garrity, Sr. v. Maryland State Board of Plumbing – Case No. 35, September Term, 2015

Issues – Commercial Law – 1) Did the Md. State Bd. of Plumbing correctly invoke the doctrine of offensive non-mutual collateral estoppel and use it to preclusive effect against Petitioner? 2) Were Petitioner’s double jeopardy protections violated when the State Bd. of Plumbing and the Consumer Protection Division both fined him for the same conduct?

Injured Workers’ Ins. Fund v. Subsequent Injury Fund, et al. – Case No. 39, September Term, 2015

Issue – Workers’ Compensation – Should the Subsequent Injury Fund Assessment under Labor & Employment (“L&E”) § 9-806 be calculated based on the amount of the award prior to or after the offset granted under L&E § 9-610?

Montgomery County, Maryland v. Ajay Bhatt – Case No. 36, September Term, 2015

Issues – Transportation Law – 1) Did the lower court err in holding that the 1890 deed from George Dunlop to the Metropolitan Southern Railroad Company did not convey a right of way? 2) Did the County prove that the Respondent’s fence and shed encroached upon the right of way that was originally purchased by the Metropolitan Southern Railroad Company and later conveyed to the county for the Georgetown Branch/Capital Crescent Trail? 3) Is a railroad right of way susceptible to a private claim for adverse possession via an adjacent landowner’s encroachment when the right of way was actively used for a railway line and when there was no evidence of abandonment by the railroad? 4) Did the lower court err in holding that the Respondent acquired title to a former railroad right of way by adverse possession?

Motor Vehicle Administration v. Jeffrey Thomas Gonce – Case No. 38, September Term, 2015

Issue – Transportation Law – Was a suspect who agreed to take a blood alcohol test, which produced a test result of 0.00, subject to suspension under Transportation Art. § 16-205.1, when he thereafter refused to submit to a blood test for intoxicants?

Oliver Allen Russell v. State of Maryland – Case No. 37, September Term, 2015

Issue – Criminal Law – May a court impose as an additional condition of probation a program that permits the probation officers to impose a curfew, require the probationer to submit to polygraphs, and to electronically monitor the probationer with a GPS device?