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No. 51, September Term, 1997 Rudolph Albert Bowman et al. v. David A. Goad, Sheriff of Allegany County et al.

[The Court Applies The Rule That No Common Law Action Lies For The Recovery Of Taxes Or Governmental Fees Which Have Been Paid Voluntarily Under A Mistake Of Law, And that Any Statutorily Prescribed Refund Remedy Is Exclusive]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 51 September Term, 1997 ____________________________________________

RUDOLPH ALBERT BOWMAN et al.

v.

DAVID A. GOAD, SHERIFF OF ALLEGANY COUNTY et al.

____________________________________________

Bell, C.J., Eldridge Rodowsky Chasanow Raker Wilner Karwacki, Robert L., (Retired, specially assigned), JJ. ____________________________________________ Opinion by Eldridge, J. ____________________________________________ Filed: December 9, 1997

Rudolph Albert Bowman, for "himself and others similarly situated," instituted this "class action" by filing a complaint in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. Bowman sought, on behalf of all members of the class, "to be recompensed for . . . wrongly charged fees" paid to sheriffs for serving process in motor vehicle prosecutions. Named as defendants were the sheriffs of 22 Maryland counties and of Baltimore City.1 The complaint alleged that the sheriffs had unlawfully "received fees from [the] plaintiffs" and that Maryland Code (1977, 1992 Repl. Vol.),

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Maryland Law