Nationwide Motor Sales Corp. v. Trusty

Moore, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. A passenger on a Greyhound bus was injured when a vehicle operated by a person other than the owner collided with the bus. In a declaration thereafter filed in the Superior Court of Baltimore City the passenger named Greyhound Lines, Inc. as well as the owner and the driver of the car as parties defendant. The owner and driver subsequently filed a third party claim against appellant, Nationwide Motor Sales Corporation, from which the car had been purchased some three weeks prior to the accident.

Nationwide’s liability was predicated upon breach of warranty by reason of an alleged defective accelerator. The Sheriff’s return showed service upon Nationwide on September 25,1971. A verdict was returned against the driver 1 on November 14, 1972 and thereafter, on January 29, 1973, he obtained a judgment by default against Nationwide based upon the latter’s failure to plead to the third party claim. Invoking the court’s authority under Maryland Rule 625, Nationwide filed a motion to strike the judgment by default on the ground, inter alia, that it had never been served.

Approximately one year later, on February 14, 1974, Nationwide’s motion was denied “without prejudice.” Some ten days thereafter, a new motion to strike the default judgment was filed; again asserting lack of service of process but also claiming a meritorious defense. What next transpired — the taking of testimony on the second motion to strike — is related to us only in the briefs of the respective parties. All the record reveals is the following “Ruling by the Court” on April 18,1974: “Third-Party Defendant Nationwide Motor Sales Corporation’s Motion to Strike Judgment came on for rehearing on Wednesday, April 10th. After ⁴⁰⁹ hearing argument and extending counsel an opportunity to submit memoranda in support of their respective positions, it is the Court’s opinion that the Nationwide Motor Sales Corporation’s Motion to Strike Judgment be and is hereby DENIED.” It is from that ruling that Nationwide has appealed, claiming that the trial court, possessing revisory power over the default judgment under Rule 625, abused its discretion in failing to strike the judgment. 2 Reliance is placed not only upon testimony before the court on the motion to strike