Section 12-906 - Doing business without registration. - Maryland Statutes

§ 12-906. Doing business without registration.
 

(a)  Barred from maintaining suit.- If a foreign statutory trust is doing or has done any intrastate, interstate, or foreign business in this State without complying with the requirements of this subtitle, the foreign statutory trust and any person claiming under it may not maintain suit in any court in this State, unless the statutory trust shows to the satisfaction of the court that: 

(1) The foreign statutory trust or the person claiming under it has paid the penalty specified in subsection (d)(1) of this section; and 

(2) (i) The foreign statutory trust or a foreign statutory trust successor to it has complied with the requirements of this title; or 

(ii) The foreign statutory trust and any foreign statutory trust successor to it are no longer doing intrastate, interstate, or foreign business in this State. 

(b)  No bar to valid acts or defense of suit.- The failure of a foreign statutory trust to register in this State does not: 

(1) Impair the validity of a contract or act of the foreign statutory trust; or 

(2) Prevent the foreign statutory trust from defending any action, suit, or proceeding in a court of this State. 

(c)  Department as agent for service of process.- A foreign statutory trust, by doing business in this State without registration, appoints the Department as its agent for service of process with respect to causes of action arising out of doing business in this State. 

(d)  Fines.-  

(1) (i) If a foreign statutory trust does any intrastate, interstate, or foreign business in this State without registering, the Department shall impose a penalty of $200 on the foreign statutory trust. 

(ii) The penalty under this subsection shall be collected and may be reduced or abated under § 14-704 of the Tax - Property Article. 

(2) A trustee or an agent who transacts intrastate, interstate, or foreign business in this State on behalf of a foreign business trust that has not registered with the Department is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is subject to a fine not exceeding $1,000. 
 

[2010, ch. 611, § 1.]