Walsh, Adm'r v. Crouse

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellee, Crouse, was injured in an automobile accident. Alleging that the negligence of the uninsured driver of the car in which he had been a passenger had brought about his injuries, he duly filed notice of intention to make claim against the Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund of the State of Maryland, and filed suit. Crouse was in the United States Army, stationed at Fort Meade.

The Fund knew he did not own an automobile registered in Maryland and was not a resident of a reciprocal State, and believed he was not a resident of Maryland and, therefore, concluded he was not a person qualified to make claim under the act which established the Fund (Code (1957), and (1962 Supp.), Art. 66j4, Secs. 150-179) and raised this defense by preliminary objection under Maryland Rule 323. Judge Duckett held “‘that the word ‘resident’ as used in the Statute does not mean that a claimant must be a permanent resident but merely an actual resident in the sense of having no other home,” and dismissed the Fund’s preliminary objection. The Fund appealed. Four days before Judge Duckett made his ruling, this Court filed its opinion in Maddy v. Jones, 230 Md. 172 , holding that the definition of a qualified person in Sec. 150 (g) of the act as a “resident of this State” means “one who possesses or has acquired a domiciliary status, in the legal sense, in this State, as distinguished from one who merely has a temporary abode in Maryland.” The agreed statement of facts on which the appeal was presented makes it clear, in our view, that Crouse was not a domiciliary of Maryland.

He enlisted in the Army while a resident ³⁸⁸ of Florida where he lived with his mother and stepfather. After his initial training ended, he was sent to