Dodge Park Enterprises, Inc. v. Welsh

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Suit was filed in Montgomery County, against three lawyers whose office is in Prince George’s County, to recover damages claimed to have resulted from the inaccurate and negligent preparation of various deeds. The declaration, in justification of the bringing of the suit in Montgomery County, alleged that the defendant lawyers were a partnership which “* * * engaged in the general practice of law throughout the State of Maryland, and in particular, in Montgomery and Prince George’s County * * The defendants challenged the venue, pursuant to Md. Rules 323 a 3 and 323 c, by moving to dismiss the action on the grounds that each of them was a resident of Prince George’s County and maintained an office in that County only, and that the acts complained of all took place in that County. An affidavit certifying the truth of the allegations in the motion was filed with it.

After hearing argument on the pleadings Judge Anderson granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. ⁵⁷² At common law a plaintiff could bring a transitory action, such as that in the present case, in any county he might choose. 2 Alexander’s British Statutes, Coe’s Ed. 659; Alcarese v. Stinger, 197 Md. 236, 244-245 . The Legislature modified the common law rule to provide in Code (1957), Art. 75, Sec. 75, that a person is not to be sued “out of the county in which he resides” with, among others, the exception, here pertinent, that “* * * any person who resides in one county but carries on any regular business, or habitually engages in any avocation or employment in another county, may be sued in either county * * This Court has held that the words “avocation” and “employment” in the applicable statute were used synonymously, McCormick v. Hullcoat, 174 Md. 493 , and that one who engages regularly in business in one county may be sued there even though his principal place of business is in another county, Chappell v. Lacey, 77 Md. 172. The appellees relied below and rely here on Bank of Baltimore v. Steele, 143 Md. 484 . There the defendant, a lawyer who practiced largely, if not almost entirely, in Carroll County, was named by the President of the United States to be Surveyor of Customs for Maryland and the District of Columbia, with headquarters in the Custom House in Baltimore.

He spent