Stalker Brothers, Inc., et al. v. Alcoa Concrete Masonry, Inc. (Ct. of Appeals)

Filed: October 24, 2011
Opinion by Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr.

Held: The Maryland Home Improvement Law does not render a contract between a home improvement general contractor and an unlicensed subcontractor unenforceable. The statute was intended to protect the public under contractor-owner contracts and not contracts between contractors who engage in arms-length transactions with one another.

Facts: Alcoa Concrete Masonry, Inc. ("Plaintiff") was an unlicensed subcontractor providing work for Stalker Brothers, Inc. ("Defendant") on contract. The two companies did business together from 2004 to 2007. Payments were regular at first but the Defendant started to miss payments in 2005 and after an attempt to reconcile the amount due among themselves the Defendant began to miss payments again, eventually refusing to pay the Plaintiff altogether.

The Plaintiff contended that they had been intentionally misled by the Defendant and that the Defendant had signed Releases of Liens stating that all subcontractors had been paid for the work when in fact the Defendant knew they had not paid the Plaintiff thereby gaining access to funds not rightfully theirs. As a defense the Defendant claimed that the Plaintiff had preformed this residential home improvement work while an unlicensed subcontractor in Maryland and as such contracts made by such an unlicensed subcontractor were illegal and unenforceable under the Maryland Home Improvement Law.

Analysis: In broad agreement with the opinion of the Court of Special Appeals [see HERE for a prior blog entry regarding the Court of Special Appeals opinion] the Court of Appeals applied the "revenue/regulation rule". Using this rule the Court distinguished between a contract between an owner and contractor as a contract covered under the Maryland Home Improvement Law, and a contract between a contractor and a subcontractor as not covered under this statute. The Court found that the purpose of the Maryland Home Improvement Law is to protect the public and not a method by which contractors could escape liability for past due amounts due to subcontractors that were unlicensed at the time they performed the contract.

The full opinion is available in PDF.

Alcoa Concrete & Masonry, Inc. v. Stalker Brothers, Inc. (Ct. of Special Appeals)

Filed: March 31, 2010

Opinion by Judge Lawrence F. Rodowsky

Holding: An unlicensed contractor is entitled to be paid under a home improvement agreement with a contractor, regardless of the requirement that contractors must be licensed under the Maryland Home Improvement Law. The statute was intended to protect the public under contractor-owner contracts, not contractors who enter into arms-length agreements with knowledge of the subcontractor’s professional qualifications.

Analysis: In deciding a dispute to determine whether a home improvement general contractor is contractually obligated to pay a subcontractor who was not licensed under the Maryland Home Improvement Law (the “Act”) at the time of entering into the subcontract, but who was licensed when the suit was brought, the Court found that it is not a reasonable construction of the statute to allow a contractor to withhold payment on the grounds that a subcontractor previously was unlicensed (but is licensed at the time payment is due). Section 8-315(a) of the Act, which prohibits payment by contractor to subcontractor “unless the person to be compensated is licensed” does not bar payment to a subcontractor licensed at time of suit.

Applying the “revenue/regulation rule,” the Court distinguished between the owner-unlicensed contractor home improvement contract (the contractual relationship covered by the Act) and the contractor-unlicensed subcontractor contract, and found that the purpose of the requirement that contractors and subcontractors be licensed is to protect the public. As such, the Act was not intended to be a shield for contractors to escape liability for the unpaid balance due to a subcontractor by asserting the illegality of the subcontract.

The full opinion is available in PDF.