Friendship Heights v. Funger

Singley, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Friendship Heights and The Hills (Friendship Heights) are two well defined areas in Montgomery County, lying generally north of the District of Columbia line, west of the Village of Chevy Chase and south of the Town of Somerset. Friendship Heights was constituted “a special tax area or district” by Ch. 131 of the Laws of 1914, which as amended, may now be found in § 66-1 through § 66-12 of the Montgomery County Code (1965). Maryland Code (1957, 1966 Repl.

Vol.) Art. 23A, § 9 (a) excludes a special tax area or district which does not exercise general municipal functions from the definition of municipal corporation. Morton Funger and his associates (Funger), who are developers, see Funger v. Mayor of Somerset, 249 Md. 311 , 239 A. 2d 748 (1968), own a tract of some 18 acres of land in the southern part of Somerset, contiguous to Friendship Heights. In anticipation of the development of the tract, Funger entered into substantially similar agreements with Somerset and Chevy Chase, the gist of which was that Somerset would support and Chevy Chase would not oppose Funger’s application for R-CBD (multiple-family, central business district residential) zoning for the tract, in return for a number of concessions made by Funger. The provisions which are pertinent here, when read together, would limit vehicular ingress to and egress from the tract by way of Wisconsin Avenue on the east and by way of Friendship Heights on the south.

The appellants say that this commitment would have the practical result of channeling a substantial portion of the traffic generated by an intensive development of the tract onto the streets of Friendship Heights. When Friendship Heights learned of this, it concluded ³⁴¹ that its interests were being bartered away in return for the concessions which Chevy Chase and Somerset would receive. In an effort to protect what the appellants regarded as their rights, an action for declaratory and injunctive relief was instituted by Friendship Heights Citizens’ Committee (the Committee) which described itself as the “Governing Body” of Friendship Heights, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County against Funger, Somerset, Chevy Chase, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and the Montgomery County Council (the County Council). The suit sought to have the agreements between Funger, on the one hand, and Somerset and Chevy Chase, on the other; the master plan adopted by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and approved by the County Council, and a zoning text amendment enacted by the County Council all declared invalid and unenforceable, and to enjoin the County Council from adopting any zoning map amendment or text amendment based in whole or in part upon the Somerset and Chevy Chase agreements.

Alternatively, there was a claim for damages. Each of the defendants responded to the complaint by filing a motion raising preliminary objection under Maryland Rule 323 a (6) — “lack of legal capacity to sue on part of plaintiff.” The court below found that the Committee was not a municipal corporation, had no express power to sue, and dismissed the bill. This appeal followed. We shall affirm, since we think the bill of complaint was properly dismissed because the Committee lacked the capacity to bring the action.

Even if the Committee had the power to sue, the bill of complaint should have been dismissed because of the Committee’s failure to exhaust its administrative remedy before seeking declaratory relief. Lack of Capacity to Sue As we have noted, Friendship Heights was constituted a special tax district by the General Assembly in 1914. ³⁴² Montgomery County Code (1965) § 66-1 describes the area. By § 66-2, the Montgomery County Council is empowered to levy a tax of ten cents on each $100.00 of assessable value, which is to be paid over to the treasurer of the Committee, to be used for: “* *