Express Scripts, Inc. v. Anne Arundel Cnty., 493 Md. 329, 394, 353 A.3d 1084, 1122 (2026) (answering certified question) (differentiating a public nuisance from a private nuisance: “Public nuisance involves an unreasonable interference with the rights of the community at large and was historically punishable as a crime. By contrast, private nuisance is a tort involving a nontrespassory invasion of another’s interest in the private use and enjoyment of land. A plaintiff in a private nuisance action may be entitled to injunctive relief or damages if the plaintiff establishes that he or she has suffered an injury that is different in kind from that suffered by members of the public.” (citations omitted)).
Express Scripts, Inc., 493 Md. at 408, 409-410, 353 A.3d at 1131-1132 (answering certified question) (“[W]e decline to recognize a public right to be free from the adverse effects associated with a lawful product being diverted, misused, or abused. To recognize a general common law ‘public right’ would permit nuisance liability to be imposed on an endless list of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of manufactured products that are intended to be used lawfully. . . . Even if the County were able to establish that the licensed dispensing of, or administration of benefit plans for opioids interfered with a common public right, and we were inclined to recognize an expanded common law tort of public nuisance, we would nonetheless decline to recognize an expanded tort here given the extensive statutory and regulatory framework that governs the conduct.”).
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