Mervin L. Blades & Son, Inc. v. Lighthouse Sound Marina and Country Club

Mechanics’ liens in Maryland were transformed into little more than debt claims when the Court of Appeals, following several due process rulings of the United States Supreme Court, decided Barry Properties v. Fick Bros., 277 Md. 15, 353 A. 2d 222, on 10 February 1976. The Court prefaced its discussion of the issue raised in that case with this explanation, at 19:

“The basis of the present attack — that the imposition of a lien without notice and an opportunity for a prior hearing, as the Maryland statute authorizes, deprives the owner of his property without procedural due process — emanates…