77 Md. 388 | Md. | 1893
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Davidson was indicted on the charge that he “unlawfully did engage in the plumbing business in the City of Baltimore, without having first received from the State Board of Commissioners of Practical Plumbing a certificate of competency.” The case was submitted to the Court on an agreed statement of facts. It appeared that the traverser was engaged in' the jslumbing business that he made contracts for furnishing all the necessary materials and doing all the necessary work in plumbing ; that he did not personally perform any of the manual work of plumbing, but employed other persons to do it, who were duly examined and registered plumbers holding the certificates of competency required by law ; and that he himself did not have a certificate of competency, nor was he registered as a practical plumber in the •books of the State Board.
The law under which the traverser- is indicted is embraced in sections 402-408 of the Public Local Law of the City of Baltimore. By section 402 it is enacted that “it shall not be lawful for any person, firm or corporation engaged in the plumbing business in the City of Baltimore, to employ as workmen in said business, any persons, except those qualified to work as registered plumbers, and no person shall be qualified to work as a registered plumber unless he has made application to and received from the State Board of Commissioners of Practical Plumbing, a certificate of competency and has complied with the provisions of the six following sections.” It will be seen that this section recognizes the fact that a corporation may engage in the plumbing business ; this circumstance will be important when we consider the other sections. Section 403 prohibits any person from engaging in or working at the plumbing business without complying with the six sections which follow section 402. Section 404 requires every person
A question was suggested at the argument by a member of the Court whether the statement of facts in the case was sufficient to authorize the Court to render judgment. In civil cases it is well settled that a judgment cannot be rendered unless in the statement of facts a clause is inserted making provision for its entry after the Court’s opinion has been expressed on the question submitted. 12 Gill & Johnson, 498; Burgess vs. Pue, 2 Gill, 254. We shall see what is the procedure in criminal cases. By the Act of 1809, chapter 144, a person presented or indicted for crime was permitted to submit to the Court, and thereupon in the language of the statute it “was authorized and empowered to decide on the whole merits of the case.” As was said in Rawlings vs. State, 2 Md., 215, the accused in the exercise of a legal right could reqrrire “the Court to examine into
culty in saying that the proceedings below placed the facts upon the record as a part thereof, by which the law of the case must be determined.” The Act of 1785, chapter 87, section (i, gave a right of appeal in prosecutions for any penalty, fine or damages. Now the facts being on the record and the Court having declared the law arising on them, it is a necessary consequence that the appeal brings the ruling of the Court before us for review. The Acts which we have mentioned have been codified and appear in the Code as Article 27, section 282 ; and Article 5, section 2.
The offence charged in this case is punishable by a fine to be sued for in the name of the State and before a Justice of the Peace of the City of Baltimore. But as no point was made on this matter at the argument, we "shall simply reverse the judgment, without further comment.
To guard against all possible misapprehension we will say that when we speak of spreading the facts on the record we, of course, mean that it must be done according to the rules of practice. The record is supposed to be made under the eye and by the direction of the Court. There are recognized modes of presenting facts to the Court for its judgment upon them. When a demurrer is filed to an indictment the Court must decide the
Judgment, reversed.