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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 2102 September Term, 2010

CHRISTINA D. THOMAS, ET AL. v. ROWHOUSES, INC., ET AL.

Zarnoch, Hotten, Thieme, Raymond G., Jr. (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.1

Opinion by Zarnoch, J.

Filed: June 28, 2012 Judge Stuart R. Berger did not participate in the Court's decision to report this opinion pursuant to Md. Rule 8-605.1.
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This case calls upon us to decide whether substituted service on the State Department of Assessments and Taxation ("SDAT") under Md. Rule 2-124(o)2 is sufficient when a corporation has forfeited its charter, has no resident agent, and the only corporate director listed in the articles of incorporation is deceased.3 In other words, when there is no one else in the corporate house left to serve, is the State the endgame recipient of service of process or do such lawsuits have no opportunity for survival? We hold that under these

circumstances, service on SDAT is proper and thus, we remand the case so that the litigation may proceed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City against the corporation. However, we also affirm the circuit court's conclusion that service on a deceased director's estate is not valid under Md. Code (1975, 2007 Repl. Vol.), Corporations and Associations Article (CA)

Section (o) of this rule, captioned, "Substituted service upon State Department of Assessments and Taxation," provides: Service may be made upon a corporation, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, or other entity required by statute of this State to have a resident agent by serving two copies of the summons, complaint, and all other papers filed with it, together with the requisite fee, upon the State Department of Assessments and Taxation if (i) the entity has no resident agent; (ii) the resident agent is dead or is no longer at the address for service of process maintained with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation; or (iii) two good faith attempts on separate days to serve the resident agent have failed. Even though the parties have failed to include it in the record, we take judicial notice of Rowhouses' corporate charter, which is matter of public record. The articles of incorporation list Eric Patten as sole director and resident agent. Also on file with SDAT is a note that the charter was forfeited for failure to file a property tax return for 2000, a Resignation of Resident Agent in which Eric Patten resigned, dated December 13, 1999 and Articles of Transfer for two other corporations, dated March 30, 1990. 1
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Maryland Law