Court Of Appeals

Maryland's highest court has cleared the way for the city to move forward with its plans for the long-delayed $152 million Superblock project. The Maryland Court of Appeals dismissed Friday a lawsuit by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos that challenged the project. In a 4-3 decision, the court said Angelos did not have standing to sue, affirming a Baltimore Circuit Court ruling to dismiss the complaint. Long stymied by legal challenges, the project involves construction of a 269-unit apartment building, a 650-space underground parking garage and shops called Lexington Square near Lexington and Howard streets.

Since Maryland began collecting DNA samples from suspects arrested in violent crimes and burglaries, it has used that evidence to win 58 convictions, including eight in rape cases. As the state's DNA database becomes more extensive and more genetic samples are collected in crime scenes, the usefulness of this tool to solve crimes and put dangerous people behind bars will only grow. DNA evidence is much more accurate than eyewitness identification and more ubiquitous than fingerprints.

An attorney for former Anne Arundel County Councilman Daryl D. Jones has filed a notice of appeal in county Circuit Court, in an effort to overturn a judge's recent ruling that the County Council acted properly when it removed Jones from his seat. A judge ruled last week that Jones, who began serving a five-month federal prison term in January for failing to file his income taxes, was required to live in his district during the full duration of his term in office. Jones' attorney Linda M. Schuett had argued that Jones, a Severn Democrat who was re-elected in 2010, was permanently domiciled in his district despite his imprisonment.

Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano is appealing a federal judge's decision to uphold his 1994 fraud convictions, according to court records. Bereano will be taking his case — based on an argument from the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court's decision in an appeal of the case against former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling — to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, his attorneys wrote in a court filing Thursday. A federal jury convicted Bereano on eight counts, though one was later dismissed, of mail fraud that stemmed from the funneling of illegal campaign contributions to Maryland politicians.

In the 1960s, Baltimore's leaders, driven by both desperate need and newfound vision, enacted a first-of-its-kind housing code for the City of Baltimore. Its provisions ensured that Baltimore's residents, including even the poorest, would be able to obtain, at a bare minimum, housing that was "fit for human habitation. " Of course, the slumlords reacted in the knee-jerk manner one would expect. (To be clear, most landlords are not slumlords. Instead, they follow the law and do their best to provide safe housing.)

The names of four candidates to fill a vacancy at Maryland's highest court were sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley this week. The Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission recommended Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Gallogly Cox; Chief Magistrate Judge Paul William Grimm, of the U.S. District Court in Baltimore; Robert Neal McDonald, chief counsel for opinions, advice and legislation in the Maryland Attorney General's Office; and Court of...

A man with no country has a chance to stay in the United States a bit longer. Maryland's highest court has ruled that 36-year-old Mark Denisyuk, who has been in the United States illegally for more than two decades, deserves another trial on five-year-old assault charges because no one told him his guilty plea could lead to his deportation. The ruling means Denisyuk can stay in the country — his lawyer says he's been released from the custody of federal immigration officials — at least until his case is resolved in Harford County.

The Maryland Court of Appeals decision this week to throw out liability limits for landlords upsets what had been one of the most productive compromises to come out of Annapolis in recent memory. The state's 1994 lead paint law, a product of extensive negotiations between property owners and public health advocates, has indisputably achieved its most crucial purpose: a drastic reduction in the number of children who are exposed to lead paint and, as a result, risk a lifetime of cognitive problems.

Maryland's highest court struck down Monday a key provision of state law that shielded owners of older rental housing from civil lawsuits - and potentially costly payments to victims - if they took precautions to protect children in their units from lead-paint poisoning. In a 7-0 ruling, the Court of Appeals declared that the 1994 lead-poisoning law violated the state's Constitution by denying a day in court to victims of the once-widespread environmental health scourge. In doing so, the court struck down what was considered a historic legislative compromise.