Midatlantic
Maryland House passes garment claim bill
House Bill 118, which adds language to
Maryland’s Artisans Lien statute pertaining to the
disposal of pre-paid garments, passed in the state’s
House of Representatives by a vote of 135-0 on March 14,
only days after amendments were added to the legislation.
The next step for the bill will be to go
through the State Senate. If the bill eventually does pass, it
could go into effect as early as Oct. 1 of this year.
The bill seeks to amend Maryland’s
current law by prohibiting drycleaners who have possession of
goods for specified services from selling those goods for 120
days if the owner had prepaid the cost of the work done.
According to the language of the law, the
specified services covered by the law include: “repair,
mending, improving, dry cleaning, laundering, or other work
which includes storage of goods.”
H.B. 118 also will require that a notice
be posted “in a conspicuous place on the premises”
stating that all prepaid garments must be retrieved within 90
days.
The new legislation adds a provision that
if a garment is not retrieved after 90 days, drycleaners must
give at least 30 days notice to the owner of the clothing by
mailing a notice to his or her address or providing oral
notice by calling the owner’s last known telephone number
before selling or disposing of the garment.
In a case where the garment owner’s
address or telephone number is unknown, drycleaners will have
other options such as posting notice on the door of the
courthouse or on a bulletin board in the immediate vicinity of
the door of the courthouse of the country in which the work was
done.
Other sections of the bill give provisions
to drycleaners relating to the application of sale proceeds
from the disposal of prepaid garments. One option is for them
to “dispose of the goods by donating the property to a
local organization that is exempt from taxation under 501(C)(3)
of the Internal Revenue Code” if the drycleaner has
fulfilled his or her legal obligations of providing sufficient
notice to the garment’s owner. The text does not define
what constitutes a “local organization.”
Though the text of the bill is subject to
change, a current copy of the most recent revised version of
H.B. 118 can be found on the Maryland legislature web site.
Once on the site, click on the link marked
“Bill Information and Status” to go to a page with
a bill number search engine. Type “HB 118” in the
box and hit the “Submit” button to go to a page
that offers the current status of the bill and has a link to
its full text.
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