1 Gill 32 | Md. | 1843
delivered the opinion of this court.
The matter in controversy in this case is of small amount, but the question involved is one of considerable importance in the administration of civil justice. It is a question of jurisdiction, and can only be decided by a careful examination of the various Acts of Assembly conferring power upon single magistrates or justices of the peace, in the recovery of small debts and other matters submitted to their judicial cognizance. The decision of such questions is not free from difficulty, on account of the multiplicity and mutability of the legislation by which our code of laws is characterised upon such subjects ;
After this opinion, Alexander for the appellee, moved the court that no judgment ought to be entered in this case, but the judgment of the county court being reversed, a writ of procedendo ought to be awarded to the county court, in order that such proceedings may be had, as would enable the appellee, the defendant below, to obtain the judgment of this court on the question reserved in the bill of exceptions, and insisted:
1. That his motion is sustained by the decision of this court in the case of The State, use of Charlotte Hall School, vs. Greenwell, 4 Gill & John. 419.
2. That independent of said decision, it would be necessary for the purposes of justice, that the case be sent back, in order that it may be put in a condition to enable this court to pass pass upon the correctness of the instruction by the court below to the jury.
JUDGMENT REVERSED AND PROCEDENDO AWARDED.