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Chapman v. Kamara12/2/1997
total of $44,350, and Reverend Cole received a total of $14,250. Still on the same day, plaintiffs filed a Satisfaction of Judgment indicating the amounts had been paid in full.
The next chapter of this narrative begins on 7 October 1994, when Reverend Cole took further action in two separate legal fora. On that day, he petitioned for administration of the Estate and was appointed as personal representative. On that same day, he filed suit in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County against the (WMATA), alleging negligence in connection with the accident in which his son Henry was injured and died. The allegation is that a WMATA bus crossed the center line into young Henry Cole's lane of on-coming traffic and that Cole swerved his van to the left and off the road in an attempt to avoid a collision. Reverend Cole brought a survival action in which he sued as the personal representative of the deceased's estate and a wrongful death action in which he sued individually (as well as to the use of the deceased's natural mother, Nankita Boseman). WMATA removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland (Southern Division, Case Number PJM-94-3185), where the case is still on-going. In October of 1995, WMATA filed a third party complaint against Renee Cole.
The catalyst of the present dispute is WMATA's motion for summary judgment filed in the federal court suit on 29 March 1996. Although the motion and its resolution are not a part of the record, the parties are in substantial agreement that the motion raised the existence of a final judgment in the instant "friendly" suit as a bar to the suit against WMATA. The parties have not informed us of any ruling on the merits of the motion. Reverend Cole thereafter resigned as personal representative of the Estate on 5 April 1996, and he was replaced in this capacity four days later by Cheryl Chapman. Chapman is Reverend Cole's attorney in the federal suit and represented him in his petition for letters of administration of the Estate.
Chapman, as personal representative of the Estate, and Renee Cole filed the instant motion to vacate judgment on 17 April 1996, alleging lack of personal jurisdiction due to deficient service of process. No party to the suit opposed the motion. On 3 May 1996, WMATA filed a Motion to Intervene as of right pursuant to Maryland Rule 2-214(a) and an Opposition to the motion to vacate. The intervention motion was granted on 24 May 1996 and, after two rounds of hearings, the motion to vacate was denied on 26 February 1997.
DISCUSSION
We first make plain that we are not resolving the question that is currently before the United States District Court as to the preclusive effect of a judgment in a friendly suit brought for the sole purpose of binding a minor to a settlement agreement. While that very issue is, of course, the driving force of the instant dispute, we are limited to reviewing only the lower court's orders, which did nothing more than permit intervention by WMATA and deny the motion to vacate judgment. Any opinion we could render regarding issue preclusion would not be binding upon the District Court and would therefore be entirely advisory in nature. E.g., Hammond v. Lancaster, 194 Md. 462, 71 A.2d 474 (1949). We would not presume that the District Court has any need for advice, and, if it finds to the contrary at a later time, it may certify a question to the proper authority, the Court of Appeals. Motion to Intervene Appellants' first claim of error is that WMATA had no "justiciable interest" sufficient to support its intervention in the suit. There are two types of intervention contemplated in the Maryland Rules of Civil Procedure: intervention as
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