Caps & Immunities For the purposes of this article, the phrase “immunity
legislation” refers to any statute or Code provision that does any one of the following things:
a. it grants blanket immunity from civil liability to specified individual(s);
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b. it grants qualified immunity from civil liability to specified individual(s); and/or
c.
it extends the reach of either the State Tort Claims Act (STCA)2
Act (LGTCA)3
or the Local Government Tort Claims to specified individual(s).
Any statute or Code provision that does any one of these three things is immunity legislation, because it shields specified individual(s) from legal responsibility for injuries that they cause – and concurrently deprives the injured person of any form of legal redress. An infamous example of out-of-control immunity
legislation in Maryland can be found in the definitional provisions of the LGTCA.4
Originally enacted in 1987 “to
provide a remedy for those injured by local government officers and employees acting without malice and in the scope of employment,”5
the LGTCA provides a set of conditions
that must be satisfied before an action for unliquidated damages may be maintained (including a restrictive 180-day notice provision6
per claim / $500,000.00 per occurrence,7 Where the special pre-suit provisions of the
) as well as a cap on damages of $200,000.00 much lower than
the applicable caps for negligence claims outside the scope of the LGTCA.8
LGTCA are not satisfied, a tort action will be dismissed,9 thereby shielding the negligent actors from liability. In its present form, however, the LGTCA extends its
Mark Wilson 443-589-2460 (direct) 1-888-MCENROE (623-6763)
Hunt Valley, MD & Vienna, VA *Servicing MD, DC, VA & PA*
restrictive pre-suit notice requirement and lower damages cap to actions arising out of the tortious conduct of employees of a variety of private, non-governmental entities. Among the entities that have been included within the scope of the LGTCA since 1987 are such private corporations as the Howard County Economic Development Authority and Lexington Market, Inc., in Baltimore City. Calling these corporations “local governments” is a legislative fiction – and every year, more private entities petition the General Assembly to get in on the act. When the Legislature adds a private corporation to
the LGTCA, it makes a political judgment to favor the particular private company in question with special treatment (including a new statutory defense to liability and a lower
2 Md. State Gov’t Code Ann. § 12-101 et seq. 3 Md. Cts. & Jud. Procs. Code Ann. § 5-301 et seq. 4 Md. Cts. & Jud. Procs. Code Ann. § 5-301(d). 5 Ashton v. Brown, 339 Md. 70, 108, 660 A.2d 447, 466 (1995). 6 Md. Cts. & Jud. Procs. Code Ann. § 5-304(a). 7 Md. Cts. & Jud. Procs. Code Ann. § 5-303(a)(1). 8 See Md. Cts. & Jud. Procs. Code Ann. §§ 3-2A-09(d) and 11-108. 9 E.g., Rios v. Montgomery County, 386 Md. 104, 872 A.2d. 1 (2005).
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