Court of Appeals Addresses Collector License Requirements

Last year, the Maryland real estate industry was rocked by a trial court decision that found that the state’s debt collector statutes also applied to investors and statutory trusts that held mortgages. On Thursday, a Maryland Court of Appeals finally issued their decision, overruling the lower court and providing new guidance into the application of the Maryland Collection Agency Licensing Act (MCALA).

The Maryland Court of Appeals issued a 64-page decision with two dissents in the consolidated cases of Blackstone v. Sharma, Shanahan v. Marvastian, O’Sullivan v. Altenburg, and Goldberg v. Neviaser. A statement from Legal League 100 member firm Stern & Eisenberg explained that the Court of Appeals’ decision “held that the legislative intent and history of the statute did not intend to force registration on foreign statutory trusts.”

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