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Wolfe v. Anne Arundel County9/29/2000
Erin Jones Wolfe, the appellant, challenges a ruling of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, Judge Eugene M. Lerner presiding, whereby the court granted Motions for Summary Judgment in favor of Anne Arundel County, the appellee, on all three counts of the claim filed against it. On appeal Ms. Wolfe claims that the circuit court improperly granted those motions. The County raises one issue by way of cross-appeal, to wit, that two counts of the claim against it were barred by res judicata or collateral estoppel.
Background
In March of 1993, Ms. Wolfe initiated a lawsuit in the Circuit Court against (1) Michael D. Ziegler, an Anne Arundel County police officer; (2) Anne Arundel County ("the County"); and (3) various officials of the County Police Department. The suit sought damages for battery and for a violation of Ms. Wolfe's federal civil rights. It stemmed from an incident which occurred at approximately 2:00 a.m. on November 15, 1990, when Ziegler, while in uniform and on duty, pulled Ms. Wolfe over for a routine traffic stop and thereafter forcibly raped her.
The County had the suit removed to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The suit was then bifurcated, with the claims against Ziegler being tried first before the trial of the claims against the County and its officials. Ziegler requested that the County, which is self-insured, provide him with funding for a legal defense. Accordingly, the County, with a reservation of rights, provided Ziegler his requested defense. In a letter sent to Ziegler on March 29, 1993, counsel for the County wrote in relevant part:
We are reserving our right to later disclaim any obligation under the insurance coverage and the Local Government Tort Claims Act, and to assert a defense of no coverage because the actions alleged in the lawsuit, if proved, would constitute intentional wrongdoing and would constitute actions not within the scope of your employment with the Anne Arundel County Police Department[.]
The letter further instructed Ziegler to select his own defense counsel rather than to retain the same counsel as the County, because of the "potentially adverse interests between [Ziegler] and the County."
On September 21, 1994, a federal jury returned a verdict in favor of Ms. Wolfe and against Ziegler in the first phase of the case. Ms. Wolfe was awarded a total of $1,050,000 in damages plus costs, $650,000 of which was compensatory and $400,000 of which was punitive. Ziegler thereafter submitted a claim for indemnification to the Anne Arundel County Self-Insurance Fund Committee ("the Committee"). A hearing was held on May 10, 1995, and the Committee denied Ziegler's claim for indemnification on the ground that "the act which resulted in the jury's verdict was not within the scope of... employment; that act, whether consensual or not, was the act of sexual intercourse, which hardly can be described as incident to [Ziegler's] duties as a police officer." Ziegler appealed the Committee's decision to the Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals which, after considering the claim de novo, affirmed the Committee's decision in all aspects on January 31, 1996.
In the second phase of the bifurcated proceedings against the County and its officials, in September of 1994 the District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the remaining defendants on all counts.
The Instant Case
In November of 1997 Ms. Wolfe filed an action for declaratory relief against the County in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. Shortly thereafter, Ziegler assigned to Ms. Wolfe any and all causes of action he might have had against the County arising
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