D'Ambrogi v. Unsatisfied Claim & Judgment Fund Board

Singly, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In July 1970, Mr. D’Ambrogi’s truck was struck by an automobile driven by Frances M. Gray and owned by her husband. D’Ambrogi brought suit against the Grays in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County which resulted in the entry of a judgment for $1,512.92: $550.00 for personal injuries; $862.92 for loss of the use of his truck, and $100.00 being the amount deductible under his policy of collision insurance, under which the cost of repairing the truck had been met. At trial, D’Ambrogi testified that he had paid $862.92 to a truck rental agency for a replacement truck while his was being repaired.

When the Grays failed to pay the judgment, D’Ambrogi returned to the Anne Arundel County Court with a petition seeking payment of the judgment from Maryland’s Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund (the Fund), Maryland Code (1957, 1970 Repl. Vol.) Art. 661/2, §§ 7-601 through 7-635 (the Act). From an order directing that $550.00, the portion of the judgment relating to personal injuries, be paid from the Fund, but denying payment of $862.92 attributable to damage sustained by loss of use of his truck, D’Ambrogi has appealed. The appellant rests his case on two arguments: first, that since the Fund conceded that the procedural requirements of the Act had been complied with, the court below lacked the power to deny judgment; and second, that damage sustained as a result of loss of use of a motor vehicle is properly payable from the Fund.

Because we regard the second argument as controlling, we need not consider the first. D’Ambrogi takes as his point of departure Art. 661/2, § ²⁰⁰ 7-606 (a) which sets out the contents of the notice to be given the Fund: “Any qualified person, who suffers damages resulting from bodily injury or death or damage to property arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle . . . [shall give notice to the Fund of an intention to make a claim for damages otherwise uncollectible].” Citing Maddy v. Jones, 230 Md. 172, 179-80 , 186 A. 2d 482 (1962) in support of his contention that the Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund Law is remedial legislation, and should be liberally construed, D’Ambrogi says that § 7-606 (a) clearly encompasses a wide variety of claims arising from a damage to property. Not so, says the Fund, which is the real appellee in the case before us. For D’Ambrogi to succeed, it argues that § 7-606 (a) would have to read: “Any qualified person, who suffers damages