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Leung v. Nunes5/17/1999
Jennifer Chan Leung et al. v. Joao Nunes et al., No. 89, September Term, 1998.
[Civil Procedure - On motion of defendant action transferred for convenience. Held: Facts insufficient to alter plaintiffs' choice of forum. Remedy is retrial in the court from which action improperly transferred.]
This motor tort case involves three vehicles, each of which was owned and operated by nonresidents of Maryland. The plaintiffs chose the Circuit Court for Baltimore City as their forum, but shortly thereafter that court transferred the action to the Circuit Court for Howard County. We shall hold that the transfer constituted reversible error, thereby affirming the judgment, based on an unreported opinion, of the Court of Special Appeals.
The accident occurred in Howard County on August 3, 1990, at approximately 9:00 p.m. in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 approximately one-quarter mile south of the entrance to the throughway leading to the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. Suit was filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City on July 2, 1992, by Joao and Maria Nunes, husband and wife, individually and on behalf of their two minor children. All were occupants of a vehicle driven by Mr. Nunes. The caption of the complaint reflected that the Nuneses reside in Newark, New Jersey.
Five defendants were named in the complaint. They were Jennifer Chan Leung (Leung) of Washington, D.C., the owner and operator of one of the vehicles involved in the accident; Denver Patrick Commock (Commock) of Alexandria, Virginia, the operator of another vehicle involved in the accident; and three corporations. All of the corporate defendants were alleged to own the motor vehicle operated by Commock. They were Ready Key, Inc. of Caldwell, New Jersey, Rapid Rentals, Inc. d/b/a Budget Rent-A-Car, as to whom service was directed to be made on a resident agent in Baltimore City, and Budget Rent-A-Car of Maryland, Inc., as to whom service was directed to be made on a resident agent in Prince George's County, Maryland. Service on all of the defendants was accomplished by July 30, 1992.
Prior to filing any answer, Leung, on August 13, moved to dismiss the complaint or, in the alternative, to transfer the action to the Circuit Court for Howard County. No affidavit accompanied that motion; it was supported exclusively by the motor vehicle accident report that was completed by a Maryland State Police trooper who investigated the accident. Less than two weeks later the Nuneses filed their opposition to the motion. That opposition added no additional facts. By order of September 23, 1992, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City transferred the action to the Circuit Court for Howard County and canceled a hearing on the Leung motion that had been scheduled.
The police report described the accident as occurring when the Leung vehicle had completed a lane change into the middle lane and lowered its speed. The vehicle operated by Commock in the middle lane struck the Leung vehicle, and then the vehicle operated by Mr. Nunes struck the Commock vehicle. A twenty-eight year old woman who resided in Washington, D.C. was a passenger in the Leung vehicle. A thirty-one year old male who was a resident of either Montgomery or Prince George's County, Maryland was a passenger in the Commock vehicle. There were three passengers in the Nunes vehicle, Mrs. Nunes, the Nuneses' daughter Nancy, then age eleven, and their daughter Marget, then age nine. The report stated that the owner of the Commock vehicle was Rapid Rentals, Inc., with an address in Arlington, Virginia. The accident report further reflected that the Leung vehicle and the Commock vehicle were driven away from the accident scene and that the Nunes
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