Kirtz v. Kirtz

Morton, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant,. Grace Kirtz, is the mother of Anna M. Kirtz, the appellee. The mother brought suit in the Superior Court of Baltimore City against the daughter to recover damages for injuries she sustained in an automobile accident.

At the time of the accident the mother was a passenger in a car being driven by the daughter. A demurrer was filed on behalf of the daughter on the ground that the suit could not be maintained by the mother because at the time of the accident the daughter was a minor. In sustaining the appellee’s demurrer, Judge Joseph H. H. ¹³⁷ Kaplan made the following findings which are not disputed by the parties: "Based upon the agreement of the parties at the hearing, the Court makes the following findings of fact: 1. At the time of the accident, March 29, 1979, Plaintiff, Grace Kirtz, was a passenger in an automobile being driven by Defendant, Anna M. Kirtz. 2.

Defendant, Anna M. Kirtz, was born on December 3, 1961. 3. At the time of the accident, Defendant, Anna M. Kirtz, was seventeen years of age. 4. On June 10, 1981, the date the instant suit was filed, Defendant, Anna M. Kirtz, was nineteen years of age. 5. Plaintiff, Grace Kirtz, is the mother of Defendant, Anna M. Kirtz.” In this appeal the mother phrases the single issue: "Did the lower court commit reversible error in granting the demurrer because, under the particular facts and circumstances of this motor-tort case, the appellant-mother should be allowed to maintain a cause of action against her subsequently emancipated appellee-daughter?” It is conceded on behalf of the mother that in Schneider v. Schneider, 160 Md. 18 (1930), the Court of Appeals denied the right of a mother to sue her minor son for injuries arising out of an automobile accident, stressing "the importance of maintaining the family relation free for other reasons from the antagonisms which such suits imply.” 160 Md. 23 .

Counsel for the mother in this appeal points out that the principle of Schneider was enunciated more than half a century ago and urges us to abandon that principle or,