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Hartford Insurance Co. v. Manor Inn of Bethesda Inc.6/9/1994
unknown or unauthorized third party who negligently causes damages is an independent and intervening factor, not reasonably foreseeable to the driver, thereby relieving the owner or person in charge of the vehicle from liability for damages caused by a third-party's negligent driving or operation of the vehicle.
Id. at 238-39, 617 A.2d at 597. Like the circuit court, the intermediate appellate court did not find it relevant "whether the injuries [were] remote in time or space to the negligent failure of a driver to remove the keys from the ignition." Id. at 238, 617 A.2d at 596.
II.
The petitioner argues that it was error for the trial court to grant the motion for summary judgment in favor of the State
against both Manor Inn and the petitioner and despite Manor Inn's failure to file a motion, to enter, sua sponte, summary judgment in favor of Manor Inn against the petitioner. Addressing the State's judgment first, it maintains that the undisputed evidence clearly discloses that the State violated its duty to properly supervise and detain a mentally ill patient involuntarily committed to one of its facilities and that that breach of duty was the proximate cause of Wewer's injuries. On the other hand, the petitioner recognizes that, "under the current state of the law, in the absence of a specific identifiable plaintiff, the State is exonerated for failing to properly exercise control over Mr. Griffin or any inpatient." Nevertheless, it urges that "the lack of an identifiable victim should not release the State from liability for its blatant failure to carry out its duty." It asks that we establish a standard which would hold the State liable for its acts of negligence.
With respect to Manor Inn, the petitioner argues that it was a jury question whether Manor Inn's violation of a statute caused or contributed to Wewer's injuries. In this case, it is undisputed, the petitioner points out, that Manor Inn's negligence lay in violating Maryland Code (1957, 1992 Repl. Vol.) Transportation Article, ยง 21-1101, entitled "Unattended Motor Vehicle." That violation having clearly been shown, its causal relationship to the accident is dependent upon the primary purpose of the statute and upon the attendant circumstances. Thus, while violation of a statute is evidence of negligence, the petitioner asserts, when the violation has been shown there remains the factual determination, to be made by the jury, as to whether it was the proximate cause of the injury . It argues, therefore, that summary judgment was inappropriate.
The State rejoins that it does not owe a duty to the public in general; rather it owes a duty only to a specific plaintiff, whose identity was known or knowable, who fell within the risk that the patient posed. In other words, the State argues that the concept of duty must be limited so as to avoid liability for unreasonably remote and unforeseeable consequences. Thus, citing Lamb v. Hopkins, 303 Md. 236, 252-253, 492 A.2d
1297, 1305-1306 (1985), it asserts that when no specific plaintiff is foreseeable, it owes no duty to the general public. Furthermore, the State points out, and contends, that it could not have "foreseen that, three days after Griffin eloped from the hospital in Sykesville, he would be found in Bethesda; that county police officers would fail to heed the notice of his elopement issued to law enforcement agencies and would take him to ... [the Manor Inn] motel, rather than return him to the hospital; that a motel employee would park a [laundry] van directly outside Mr. Griffin's motel room and leav
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