Stachowski v. State
| Decision Date | 22 October 2010 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 52 and 16, Sept. Term, 2008.,s. 52 and 16, Sept. Term, 2008. |
| Citation | 6 A.3d 907,416 Md. 276 |
| Parties | Kenneth Martin STACHOWSKI, Jr. v. STATE of Maryland. Wayne Stockstill v. State of Maryland. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Celia Anderson Davis, Asst. Public Defender (Nancy S. Forster, Public Defender, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for appellant in No. 52, Sept. Term, 2008.
Jeremy M. McCoy, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for appellee in No. 52, Sept. Term, 2008.
Russell P. Butler, Lauren Tabackman, Maryland Crime Victims' Resource Center, Inc., Upper Marlboro, MD, brief of Amicus Curiae Maryland Crime Victims' Resource Center, Inc.
Rachel Marblestone Kamins (Gary E. Bair of Bennett & Bair, LLP, Greenbelt, MD), on brief, for appellant in No. 16, Sept. Term, 2008.
Mary Ann Ince, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for appellee in No. 16, Sept. Term, 2008.
Argued before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ADKINS, JOHN C. ELDRIDGE (Retired, Specially Assigned), and LAWRENCE F. RODOWSKY, (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.
JOHN C. ELDRIDGE, J. (Retired, Specially Assigned).
These two cases present the same issue concerning the certiorari jurisdiction of this Court, although the cases are otherwise unrelated. Since that jurisdictional issue is dispositive in this Court, and requires that the previously issued writ of certiorari in each case be dismissed, we shall consider the cases in a single opinion.
The facts in each case pertinent to the jurisdictional issue are as follows.
This case began in 2005 when Kenneth Martin Stachowski was charged in the District Court of Maryland, Somerset County, with theft under $500. The charge was based upon Stachowski's giving, in June 2005, a bad check in the amount of $182.86 to a company known as Somerset Well Drilling. Upon Stachowski's request for a jury trial, the case was transferred to the Circuit Court for Somerset County and was given case number 8089. Stachowski made full restitution to Somerset Well Drilling prior to the trial of the case in the Circuit Court. The case was called for trial in the Circuit Court for Somerset County on October 11, 2006. Stachowski waived a jury trial, pled guilty, and, after the prosecuting attorney recounted the factual basis for the guilty plea, Stachowski was found guilty.
At the same time that this trial of the bad check case took place, the Circuit Court also heard de novo appeals from the District Court in three violation of probation cases (Circuit Court case numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152). These three cases were factually and legally unrelated to the present bad checkcase except that Stachowski was also the defendant. Case numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152 were based upon three District Court prosecutions charging Stachowski with violations of Maryland's home improvement laws. The victims were Ruth Daniels, Darlene Wright, and Emma Daniels. At the conclusion of the District Court trials, Stachowski was found guilty of violating the home improvement laws, was placed on probation, and was ordered to make restitution to the three victims.
Stachowski did not appeal from the convictions in the District Court home improvement cases. Later, however, the District Court determined that Stachowski was in violation of probation because of his failure to make restitution to the three victims of the home improvement violations. Stachowski appealed to the Circuit Court from the District Court orders revoking probation. As previously indicated, these three appeals (numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152) were heard de novo along with the trial in the bad check case (number 8089). In case numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152, Stachowski testified that he was unable to make the restitution payments to the three victims because of numerous financial and legal problems which he and his family were facing. The circuit judge revoked probation in case numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152, and imposed sentences in those three cases as well as in the bad check case (number 8089), with portions ofeach sentence suspended in favor of periods of probation.
The action of the Circuit Court which gave rise to the appellate proceedings in this Court was a restitution order which was part of the judgment in the bad check case (number 8089). Despite the fact that Stachowski had already made full restitution to the victim in the bad check case, the circuit judge required, as a condition of probation in case number 8089, that Stachowski also make restitution to the three victims in the home improvement appeals, case numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152. The judge stated (emphasis added):
On November 9, 2006, Stachowski filed in the Court of Special Appeals applications for leave to appeal in the present bad check case (number 8089) as well as in the three home improvement appeals (numbers 8150, 8151, and 8152). Pursuant to Maryland Rule 8-132, the Court of Special Appeals transferred the three home improvement cases to this Court.1 The reason for the transfer was that the Court of Special Appeals has no jurisdiction to review decisions of the Circuit Courts where the Circuit Courts, in the exercise of their appellate jurisdiction, entertain appeals from final judgments of the District Court of Maryland. Further appellate review of Circuit Court decisions in such cases is exclusively bydiscretionary writ of certiorari issued by this Court. See Maryland Code (1974, 2006 Repl.Vol.), § § 12-305 and 12-307(2) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article.
After the Court of Special Appeals transferred the three home improvement cases to this Court, Stachowski filed in this Court a "supplemental" certiorari petition, asking the Court to review the Circuit Court's judgments in the home improvement cases. This Court initially denied the certiorari petition, but, on motion for reconsideration, the Court on August 22, 2007, granted the petition and issued a writ of certiorari in the three home improvement cases. Stachowski v. State, 400 Md. 647, 929 A.2d 890 (2007). Following briefing and argument, this Court on January9, 2008, in an opinion by Judge Battaglia, dismissed the writ of certiorari. Stachowski v. State, 403 Md. 1, 939 A.2d 158 (2008). The Court pointed out that the issue presented by Stachowski in his supplemental petition, which the Court had determined warranted the issuance of the writ of certiorari, was whether the Circuit Court "err[ed] in ordering restitution to three victims as a condition of probation in a fourth unrelated case in which no restitution was due." Stachowski, 403 Md. at 9, 939 A.2d at 162-163. The Court then held the writ must be dismissed "because the legality of the restitution order in the theft case is not before us" (403 Md. at 10, 939 A.2d at 163), and "a reversal of the Circuit Court orders in the home improvement cases ... would have no effect on the restitution order in the theft case" (403 Md. at 12-13, 939 A.2d at 165). The dismissal of the writ of certiorari finally terminated appellate proceedings in the three home improvement cases.
As earlier stated, Stachowski also filed in the Court of Special Appeals an application for leave to appeal in the present case, the bad check prosecution. The Court of Special Appeals on May 29, 2007, filed a one-sentence order denying the application. Stachowski filed a motion for reconsideration, and the Court of Special Appeals, in a brief order on May 13, 2008, recalled the May 29, 2007, order. Next, on May 28, 2008, the Court of Special Appeals, in another brief order signed only by the Chief Judge, granted the application forleave to appeal, transferred the case to the regular appeal docket, set a briefing schedule, and scheduled the oral argument for the Court of Special Appeals' September 2009 session.
By order dated July 23, 2008, this Court, on its own motion, ordered that a writ of certiorari should issue in the present case, established a briefing schedule, and set the oral argument for the November 2008 session of this Court. A writ of certiorari to the Court of Special Appeals was issued by the Clerk of this Court on the same date. Stachowski v. State, 405 Md. 348, 952 A.2d 224 (2008). It should be noted that, when the writ of certiorari was issued in the present case on July 23, 2008, this Court had disposed of the three home improvement cases more than six months earlier, on January 9, 2008.
The initial briefing and oral argument in this case addressed only one issue, the validity of the Circuit Court's restitution order. Subsequent to the initial oral argument, however, this Court noticed a jurisdictional issue which had not previously been raised by the parties or by the Court. Consequently, we issued an order directing the parties to file supplemental briefs, and reargue the case, on the issue of whether this Court has jurisdiction to decide the case on its merits in light of Maryland Code (1974, 2006 Repl.Vol.), § 12-202 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. That statute provides as follows:
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