Can a Judge Overrule the Decision of Another Judge of the Same Court?

[ascorbate]

Plaintiff originally filed a tort complaint to be heard in Maryland District Court. Defendant file a Notice of Intention to Defend but filed nothing else.

Nearly four months later, Defendant filed a motion for leave to file counterclaim (and had to show good cause). Plaintiff opposed Defendant's motion. A District Court judge later ruled on the motion denying Defendant's request for leave to file counterclaim.

Now 5 months later, another judge of same court, while ruling on another completely unrelated motion in the matter, apparently revisited Defendant's previous motion for leave to file counterclaim... and granted it!

Defendant's attorney: 1) had not filed a motion to reconsider leave to file counterclaim, 2) had not filed another motion hinting in any way for a second request for leave to file counterclaim, and 3) nothing else in the case has materially changed (with regards to the Defendant's original request for leave to file counterclaim). So either the judge wasn't paying attention to the previous decision issued OR he/she was purposely taking up "the previously settled law of the case" and overruling another judge of the same District court? Can he/she do that?

Is there any legal precedent that I could cite in a motion to dismiss counterclaim that the judge (who overruled another judge of the same court) is in error?