81 Md. 287 | Md. | 1895
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The appeal to the Court below was not filed within one week from the last day of the sitting of the registration
It appears that the State’s Attorney agreed that no advantage should be taken of the delay, and the petition might be filed nunc pro time, and that thereupon the Judge, on the 27th of October, ordered that the petition be filed as of the 22nd of October, 1894, in accordance with the agreement. But neither the agreement of counsel nor the order of Court can confer jurisdiction in a case where the law does not authorize the Court to take cognizance of the matter. This is a proceeding under a statute, and to give the Court jurisdiction, the requirements of the Act must be strictly complied with. Shelby v. Bacon, 10 Howard (U. S.) 56; Ticer v. Thomas, 74 Md. 345.
The case was therefore not properly before the Circuit Court, and its rulings consequently cannot be reviewed by this Court.. The appeal will therefore be dismissed.
Appeal dismissed.
A motion for a re-argument was subsequently made, and in disposing of this motion,
delivered the opinion of the Court.
•The appellant, in support of his motion for a re-argument, assigns as his first reason, that the judgment of this Court was based “upon a point not raised in the pleadings below, the exceptions taken, or the briefs of argument submitted by either of the parties to the cause, but solely by an inspection by the Court of certain endorsements upon .the petition set forth in the record; whereas, by an inspec
2. The appellant, in his motion, strenuously insists that the time prescribed in the Act of 1890 for appealing from the register is directory and not mandatory, and not being jurisdictional can be waived. We have examined all the authorities to which we have been referred. They announce a principle often maintained by this Court, and one which we do not in this case in any wise mean to impugn. It was clearly stated in the case of the State, &c., v. The Co. Coms. of Balto. County, 29 Md. 522, in these words, that “where the duty prescribed is of a public nature, and intended for the public benefit, and is directed to be performed within a specified time, Courts have adopted as a general rule of construction of statutes that they are in respect to time, to be regarded as directory merely, unless from the nature of the act to be performed, or the language employed in the statute, it plainly appears that the designation of time was intended as a limitation of power.” Now we are of the opinion that both from the nature of the Act to be performed, and from the language of the 21st section of ch. 573 of the Acts of 1890, the time prescribed within which appeals from the register must be taken, is a limitation upon the right of the party appealing, and upon the Judge to whom the appeal is taken. The registration laws passed in pursuance of the fifth section of Article 1 of the Constitu
There is no error in the form of the judgment of this Coiirt. The Judge below dismissed the petition, and being of opinion he was correct in so doing, we affirm his judgment.
Motion for rehearing overruled.
(Decided April 25th, 1895.)