Burton v. Halley

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from an order denying a motion to quash an attachment on original process against a non-resident (Maryland Rule G40 a) having a joint interest in the property attached (Rule G50). The declaration contained three of the common counts and a special count alleging that the plaintiff, a licensed real estate broker, entered into an agreement with the defendants, “basically oral,” whereby they agreed to pay him a commission of $70,000, or 10% of the gross price, if he obtained a net price of $630,000 for their Maryland real estate of some 31 acres. The declaration alleged that he procured a purchaser ready, willing and able to purchase at those terms, but they declined to sign the contract, attached as Exhibit 1.

The affidavit in support of the attachment declared that the appellant was a non-resident, and that the defendants were indebted in the amount of $70,000, “exclusive of all set-offs and just grounds of defence.” See Rule G41 b. Bond was not furnished. Rule G42 e provides that bond shall be filed “in an action ex contractu for unliquidated damages,” and its amount “shall be the sum alleged to be due from the defendant.” Under the former practice the bond was required to be twice that amount. See Rhynhart, Attachments in the People’s Court of Baltimore City, 14 Md. L. Rev. 235 , 248; Code (1957), Art. 9, sec. 37, re ⁴⁴ pealed by Ch. 36, Acts of 1962.

As stated by Rhynhart, supra, “no bond is necessary to secure an attachment * * * for liquidated damages against a non-resident * * * debtor,” citing Thomas, Justice of the Peace Procedure (2d ed), § 144. This seems to be implicit in the Rules, and is virtually conceded in the instant case. It may be noted that an order denying a motion to quash was formerly not appealable, being an interlocutory order. Steuart v. Chappell, 98 Md. 527, 529 , and cases cited.

But this was also changed by Ch. 36, Acts of 1963. See Code (1963 Supp.), Art. 5, sec. 20A. The motion to quash, incorrectly styled a “petition,” admitted that the appellant is a resident of Virginia but denied that she is indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $70,000, or “in any other amount [or] on any other cause of action.” The attorney