June 2022 Maryland Certiorari Grants

The Maryland Court of Appeals on Friday granted review in three cases.

Kobina Ebo Abruquah v. State – Case No. 10, September Term, 2022 (Bypass Review)

Issue – Criminal Law – Is firearm identification methodology sufficiently reliable to allow an examiner to identify a specific firearm as the source of a questioned bullet or casing, or should the examiner be permitted to testify, at most, that a firearm cannot be excluded as the source of the questioned projectile?

Assateague Coastal Trust v. Maryland Department of the Environment – Case No. 11, September Term, 2022 (Bypass Review)

Issues – Environmental Law – 1) Was the Department’s final determination to require individualized assessments of gaseous emissions for poultry houses and other animal feeding operations covered by the general permit supported by substantial evidence in the record and not arbitrary and capricious? 2) Did the Department err in issuing a General Discharge Permit for Animal Feeding Operations without including controls for ammonia emissions, when Md. water pollution control laws unambiguously require regulation of ammonia emissions 3) Do the Clean Water Act and the more stringent Md. water pollution control laws require water discharge limitations that take into account impaired receiving waters (i.e. water quality-based effluent limitations) where effluent limitations based solely on minimum levels of treatment achieved by technology are ineffective?

Montgomery Park, LLC v. Maryland Department of General Services – Case No. 12, September Term, 2022 (Reported COSA Opinion by Judge Nazarian)

Issues – State Finance & Procurement – 1) Is it arbitrary or capricious for a procurement officer to cancel the proposed award of a procurement contract without making independent “written findings” required by Maryland law to support that decision, and instead relying on someone else’s findings that were not supported by the administrative record? 2) Did Petitioner have standing to challenge the unlawful award of a sole source contract to a different applicant?