Yantz v. Warden of Md. House of Correction, 212

• Decision Date: 15 June 1956
• Docket Number: No. 212,212
• Citation: 210 Md. 343,123 A.2d 601
• Parties: William Ray YANTZ v. WARDEN OF MARYLAND HOUSE OF CORRECTION.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 343

210 Md. 343

123 A.2d 601

William Ray YANTZ v. WARDEN OF MARYLAND HOUSE OF CORRECTION.

No. 212.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 15, 1956.

Ambrose T. Hartman, Baltimore, for appellant.

James H. Norris, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. (C. Ferdinand Sybert, Atty. Gen., Anselm Sodaro, State's Atty., Baltimore, and Edward F. Borgerding, Asst. State's Atty., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and HAMMOND, JJ.

DELAPLAINE, Judge.

William Ray Yantz, who is a prisoner in the Maryland House of Correction, has brought this appeal from the refusal of Judge Michael J. Manley, sitting in the Baltimore City Court, to issue a writ of habeas corpus.

Yantz was tried and convicted on July 31, 1954, by Magistrate Jesse Shank in Washington County, Maryland, on two warrants, each charging him with assault. One warrant charged an assault upon a woman, the other an assault upon a man. However, as the assaults grew out of the same incident, Magistrate Shank heard the cases together. The docket entries show that the accused was informed of his right to trial by jury, but that he freely elected to be tried before the magistrate. The megistrate found him guilty in both cases, and sentenced him to the Maryland House of Correction, in one case for a term of three years, and in the other case for a term of two years, the sentences to run consecutively.

On April 9, 1955, Yantz filed a petition in the Baltimore City Court for a writ of habeas corpus. Judge S. Ralph Warnken denied the petition without a hearing. The petitioner then applied to the Court of Appeals for leave to prosecute an appeal from the refusal of a writ. Under the Maryland Habeas Corpus Act, when an application to prosecute such an appeal is granted by the Court of Appeals, this Court may affirm, reverse, or modify the order appealed from, or it may remand the case for further proceedings; but when an application is denied, the order thereby becomes final to the same extent and with the same effect as if the order had been affirmed on appeal. Code 1951, art. 42, § 6.

On December 8, 1955, the Court of Appeals granted the petitioner leave to appeal. The Court also appointed Ambrose T. Hartman, of the Baltimore bar, to act as his attorney on his appeal. On January 3, 1956, the Court, upon the petitioner's motion, dismissed his appeal without prejudice to enable him to file a new petition for a writ setting forth any additional grounds that migh be available.

The petitioner filed his second petition in the Court below on February 3. In this petition he alleged that justices of the peace in Washington County have no jurisdiction to try charges of assault. He further alleged that, even assuming that they have such jurisdiction, Magistrate Shank exceeded his authority when he imposed sentences to the House of Correction for terms totaling five years. He relied on the provision in the Criminal Code that 'in no case whatsoever shall any Justice sentence any person to imprisonment in the Maryland House of Correction for more than three years nor for less than three months.' Code 1951, art. 27, § 796.

Judge Manley, who heard the petitioner on February 14, held the case sub curia until March 6, when he entered an order refusing to issue a writ and remanding the petitioner to the custody of the warden of the House of Correction. The judge held (1) that Magistrate Shank had jurisdiction to try the charges of assault; (2) that the magistrate lacked authority to sentence the petitioner to the House of Correction for more than three years; and (3) that the Court could not release the petitioner on habeas corpus until after he had served three years. On March 16 the Court of Appeals again granted the petitioner leave to appeal.

It is established that a a court of general criminal jurisdiction is a court of record which passes on its jurisdiction in the regular course of trial, its jurisdiction may be reviewed on appeal if challenged in the trial court, but it cannot be reviewed on habeas corpus. On the other hand, if a justice of the peace has no jurisdiction when he convicts and sentences an accused, correction of the judgment may be made on habeas corpus. Superintendent of Maryland State Reformatory for Males v. Calman, 203 Md. 414, 424, 101 A.2d 207.

The office of justice of the peace in Maryland dates back to Colonial times. The justices were conservators of the peace in their respective Counties, and had only a limited jurisdiction conferred by Acts of the Maryland Assembly. In their respective Counties the justices composed the County Court, but a great distinction was recognized between the Justices of the County Court and the Judges of the other Courts. The Maryland Constitution of 1776, art. 44, provided that a Justice of the Peace could serve as a Senator or Delegate or as a member of the Governor's Council and continue to act as a Justice of the Peace. Thus the General Court of Maryland, in the opinion delivered by Chief Judge Chase in 1802 in Whittington v. Polk, 1 Har. & J., 236, 248, observed: 'So far as respects the Justices of the County Courts, the principle in the Bill of Rights, that the legislative, executive and judiciary, shall for ever be kept separate and distinct, is departed from, and they are made capable of being elected members of the General Assembly, or members of the Council; which constitutes a very striking distinction between the Justices of the County Courts, and the Judges of the other Courts, and manifests plainly that it was not the intention to place them on the same footing as to the durability of their commissions.'

The Constitution of 1851, art. 4, § 19, provided that the Legislature should fix the number of justices of the peace for each ward of the City of Baltimore and for each election district in the seversal Counties, and that they should be elected by the voters thereof.

The Constitution of 1864, art. 4, § 47, and the Constitution of 1867, art. 4, § 42, provided for the appointment of justices of the peace by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution now provides that Justices of the Peace shall be Conservators of the Peace, and shall have such jurisdiction as has been heretofore exercised or shall be hereafter prescribed by law.

It has always been recognized that the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in Maryland is a special one created by statute. Prior to 1880 justices of the peace had no criminal jurisdiction in this State except such as was conferred by the statute which created the offense and imposed the penalty. Criminal charges which the statute did not specifically authorize justices of the peace to try and determine could be heard only in the Criminal Court after indictment by the grand jury. State v. Ward, 95 Md. 118, 123, 51 A. 848.

By Chapter 326 of the Acts of 1880, the Legislature of Maryland conferred additional jurisdiction upon the justices of the peace in eighteen Counties of the State, including Washington County. That Act gave to those justices of the peace jurisdiction, concurrent with the Circuit Courts, (1) in all cases of assault without any felonious intent, (2) in all cases of assault and battery, (3) in all cases of petit larceny when the value of the property stolen does not exceed the sum of five dollars, and (4) in all misdemeanors not punishable by confinement in the Penitentiary. The Act also gave to the justices in those Counties jurisdiction in prosecutions for any charge made punishable by any fine or by imprisonment in jail or in the Maryland House of Correction.

In 1884 that Act was re-enacted in order to eliminate Frederick County from its provisions. Acts 1884, ch. 510. The Act was codified in the Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland, 1930 Ed., as Section 554 of Article 22, title 'Washington County.'

By Chapter 618 of the Acts of 1890, the Legislature added Section 11A to Article 52 of the Code of Public General Laws, 1888 Ed., title 'Justices of the Peace,' conferring upon all justices of the peace in the State of Maryland, except in the City of Baltimore, the same jurisdiction that was conferred upon the justices in eighteen Counties by the 1880 Act, and upon the justices in seventeen Counties by the 1884 Act.

By Chapter 475 of the Acts of 1906, this public general law was re-enacted so as to read as...