<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<section article="gps" article_name="Public Safety" number="14-213" title_number="14" title_name="Emergency Management" subtitle_number="2" subtitle_name="Civil Relief During Emergency Periods">
  <level label="a">
    <level label="1">
      <text>For nonpayment of an installment due under a contract for the purchase of real or personal property or a contract of lease or bailment with the option to purchase the property, a person or the person’s assignee may not exercise a right or option under the contract to rescind or terminate the contract or resume possession of the property if:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>the person or the person’s assignee received under the contract a deposit or installment of the purchase price of the property from another person or the assignee of that person who, after making the deposit or installment, became a person in emergency management service or person suffering injury or damage; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>the attempt to exercise the right or option under the contract occurred while the person who made the deposit or installment was a person in emergency management service or person suffering injury or damage.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>Paragraph (1) of this subsection does not apply if a court allows the person or the person’s assignee to exercise the right or option under the contract.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>This subsection does not prevent the parties to a contract or their assignees from mutually agreeing in an executed writing, after the making of the contract and during or after the period that a party to the contract is a person in emergency management service, to:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>modify, terminate, or cancel the contract; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>repossess or retain the property purchased or received by that party under the contract.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="b">
    <level label="1">
      <text>After a hearing on the action:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>the court may order the repayment of all or part of any prior installment or deposit as a condition of terminating the contract and resuming possession of the property;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <level label="1">
          <text>on its own initiative the court may stay the action; and</text>
        </level>
        <level label="2">
          <text>except as provided in § 14-215 of this subtitle, on motion by a person in emergency management service, person suffering injury or damage, or another person acting on behalf of that person, the court shall stay the action; or</text>
        </level>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>the court may otherwise dispose of the case as it considers equitable to preserve the interests of the parties.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>The court need not stay the action if the court finds that the ability of the defendant to comply with the terms of the contract was not materially affected because the defendant was a person in emergency management service or person suffering injury or damage.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
</section>
