Contrary to popular belief, a limited liability company (LLC) does not offer absolute protection.  As with corporate officers and agents, members and managers of LLCs can be personally liable for wrongful acts they commit, even when acting on behalf of the LLC.  The protection a LLC does offer was further diminished by Maryland’s highest court when it decided that a member of a LLC may be personally liable for lead paint injuries suffered by children who occupied a dwelling that the LLC owned. 

The good news, if there is any in the case, is that the holding appears limited to the specific context:  housing in Baltimore City.  To be liable, the individual must have a duty as an “owner” of the dwelling and personally participate in the action, or inaction, causing the injury, in this case failing to remediate lead paint.

The bad news here is that the LLC, and the manager held liable as an individual, had no intention of allowing people to occupy the dwelling and, in fact, took action to prevent people...

In a recent controversial opinion that allowed insurers and business owners to breath a huge sigh of relief, Maryland’s highest court upheld the constitutionality of Maryland’s cap on non-economic damages, meaning that a plaintiff’s claim for pain and suffering damages is limited regardless of what a jury awards. In the summer of 2006, a five-year-old boy accidentally drowned in a country club swimming pool in Anne Arundel County.  The boy’s parents sued the swimming pool management company for negligence.  The parents won and the jury awarded them over $4 million for their mental anguish from the death of their child.  Because of Maryland’s law that sets a cap on non-economic damages (pain and suffering, as opposed to medical expenses and lost wages), the trial court reduced the verdict to just over $1 million.  The parents appealed and argued that the statutory cap was unconstitutional. The court rejected the parents’ argument on the basis that it had already decided the same issue years before.  In two...