No Respect

Footnote 1 of a tax sale opinion issued today by the court formerly known as the Maryland Court of Special Appeals

All four entities are subsidiaries of Bronson Lee Partners Fund III, LLC, a Chicago-based “private investment firm specializing in distressed real estate and delinquent tax receivables located in Maryland and Washington D.C.” Bronson Lee Partners, bronsonlee.com (last visited Oct. 24, 2022), archived at https://perma.cc/U5AU-5LSA. Earlier opinions of this Court and the Supreme Court of Maryland (at the time named the Court of Appeals of Maryland)* have noted similarities between the names of the purchasing entities and characters played by Rodney Dangerfield in the 1980s classic comedies Caddyshack (Al Czervik, Ty Webb, and Danny Noonan) and Back to School (Thornton Melon). In its reply brief in these cases, Thornton Mellon insists that it “is not named after the infamous Rodney Dangerfield character, Thornton Melon, from Back to School,” that “the similarity in names is merely a coincidence,” and that although “[o]ne may question Appellants’ taste in movies, but Appellants would prefer that future readers of opinions involving their cases not mistakenly believe that they are bad spellers.” So noted. We note as well the similarity between the name of Thornton Mellon’s parent company and the 1974 martial arts film Bronson Lee, Champion, one in which Mr. Dangerfield played no role whatsoever, and let readers draw their own conclusions.

The court is now known as the Maryland Appellate Court. Let readers draw their own conclusions. (Mike Frisch)