113 Me. 493 | Me. | 1915
Two writs of error, wherein the plaintiff in each case alleges that in a certain judgment of the Bangor Municipal Court upon libels praying for the forfeiture of certain intoxicating liquors, in which proceedings the plaintiffs had filed claims for the liquors libeled, and had been admitted as parties, as provided by Sec. 51, Chap. 29, it. S., there appears upon the record an error that deprived the court of jurisdiction to give judgment in the causes. The error alleged is that, “during the progress of the hearing in said matter said hearing was indefinitely postponed before the termination thereof and was finally adjourned before any judgment .of the matter was rendered by said court, and by said indefinite postponement and by said final adjournment before judgment was rendered, said Bangor Municipal Court lost jurisdiction of said cause.”
Both writs assign the same error, and the cases are before this court upon report. The record shows that both cases were heard at the same time by the Judge of the Municipal Court of Bangor, and the record introduced to support the allegation of error reads, as far as material to these cases: “On May 19, A. D. 1914, hearing had. Evidence closed. Arguments of counsel made, and case taken under advisement for a decision, and hearing adjourned without day.” May 20, A. D. 1914, decision was rendered as follows: “The liquors ordered forfeited to State. Balph P. Plaisted, Judge.” And it-is contended that, by adjourning the hearing May 19, 1914 “without day,” the Bangor Municipal Court lost jurisdiction of the causes.Although the proceedings complained of were against the liquors only, the cases were criminal cases and governed by the rules of criminal law, State v. Robinson, 49 Maine, 285; State v. Intoxicating Liquors, 80 Maine, 57, and if the proceedings of the Bangor Municipal Court were unauthorized by law, the plaintiffs being parties to the pro
As said in Commonwealth v. Maloney, 145 Mass., 211, “When a case is pending in a permanent court of general jurisdiction, with stated terms, in which continuances are from term to term, a defendant may waive the formal entries of continuance, and consent that the case may
In Harrison v. Chipp, 25 Ill., 471, the court said: “In this case the justice of the peace, by the indefinite postponement of the cause, lost jurisdiction of the parties and was unauthorized to proceed to render the judgment. It, being unauthorized, was not binding on the parties and was void.” And in Crandall v. Bacon, 20 Wis., 639, the court said: “The judgment of the justice of the peace enjoined by the Circuit Court was void. The justice adjourned the cause one week, without specifying the hour of the day or the place to which it was adjourned. He thereby lost jurisdiction of the cause.”
As the Bangor Municipal Court lost jurisdiction of the causes, by the adjournment without day, the errors are well assigned and the judgments should be reversed.
Judgments reversed.