Maryland State Highway Administration v. Kim3/19/1999
The question that we are asked to resolve in this case is whether sovereign immunity bars an award of post-judgment interest, when the money judgment entered against a State agency, in accordance with the provisions of the Maryland Tort Claims Act, Maryland Code (1984, 1989 Cum. Supp.) 12-104 of the State Government Article, is for the maximum amount prescribed by the act. We hold that sovereign immunity does not preclude such an award.
I.
This case had its genesis in an automobile accident, in July 1989, in which David Kim, a 15 year old summer school student, was seriously injured. His parents, Joseph and Hoon Kim, (the "appellees"), as next friends, filed a negligence action in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County against, among others, the State Highway Administration of the Department of Transportation ("SHA"), the appellant, and the Board of Education of Prince George's County ("BOE"). The case was tried to a jury, which, at the conclusion of the trial, returned a verdict awarding the appellees $650,000 in damages. Pursuant to Maryland Code (1985, 1988 Repl. Vol., 1989 Cum. Supp.), 9-105 of the State Finance & Proc. Article and COMAR 25.02.01.01 (B)(1) (1984, Supp. 3 1989), with respect to the SHA, and pursuant to Maryland Code (1978, 1989 Repl. Vol.) 4-105 of the Education Article, with respect to the BOE, the trial court reduced the award to $50,000 and $100,000, respectively, and judgment was entered accordingly.
Both the SHA and the BOE noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unreported opinion, that court affirmed the judgments. After the intermediate appellate court issued its mandate, the SHA tendered to the appellees, in payment of the judgment, its check for $50,000. It rejected, however, the appellees' demand for post-judgment interest on that judgment, from the date of its entry. Consequently, the appellees filed, in the circuit court, a motion for appropriate relief, in which they asked the court to award post-judgment interest on the SHA judgment. The court granted the appellees' motion, prompting the SHA's appeal. This Court, on its own motion, granted certiorari, before the Court of Special Appeals considered the matter.
(a)
The appellant's argument proceeds from the premises that " he sovereign immunity of the State may only be waived if the General Assembly has authorized suits for damages and has provided for the payment of the resulting judgments or settlements[,] Kee v. State Highway Administration, 313 Md. 445, 455, 545 A.2d 1312, 1317 (1988); see Katz v. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, 284 Md. 503, 508, 397 A.2d 1027, 1030 (1979)" and that the Maryland Tort Claims Act does not authorize payments for injury , loss, or damage, in excess of $50,000 in situations arising under the Act. From those premises, the appellant argues that, by awarding the appellees post-judgment interest on a judgment, for the maximum amount for which the State's sovereign immunity has been waived and for which provision has been made for payment, the circuit court, in effect, expanded the waiver of sovereign immunity beyond the contemplation of the General Assembly, to claims in excess of $50,000. The Legislature has neither authorized nor provided funds to pay post-judgment interest in that circumstance, it asserts.
(b)
The appellees argue, on the other hand, that the court quite properly awarded post-judgment interest on the judgment. The authority for doing so may be found, they maintain, by reading the Maryland Tort Claims Act in conjunction with Maryland Code (1974, 1989 Repl. Vol., 1989 Cum. Supp.) 11-107 (a) of the Courts & Judicial Proceedings Article and Maryland Rule 2-
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