50 A.2d 560 | Md. | 1947
Lead Opinion
Hyman A. Pressman, a member of the Maryland bar, is appealing here from an order of the Superior Court of Baltimore City dismissing his petition for a writ of mandamus to compel W. Lee Elgin, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of the State of Maryland, to keep open to public inspection the reports of motor vehicle accidents received by the Department of Motor Vehicles. The petitioner alleges (1) that a part of his practice of law consists in representing clients in damage suits arising out of motor vehicle accidents; (2) that on May 9, 1946, he visited the Department of Motor Vehicles in the course of his practice, and requested permission to inspect several reports of motor vehicle accidents filed in that Department, but his request was refused by the employees of the Department; (3) that the refusal of permission was caused by the arbitrary and unlawful action of Commissioner Elgin in barring from public inspection all reports of motor vehicle accidents which have occurred since January 1, 1946; and (4) that he has been caused great inconvenience and damage by the refusal. The Commissioner demurred to the petition, and his demurrer was sustained.
The Maryland Motor Vehicle Act of 1943, which revised the motor vehicle laws of the State, directs the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to keep a record of all statements filed with him and all certificates issued by him, and provides that all records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, other than those declared by law to be confidential for the use of the Department, shall be open to public inspection during office hours. Laws of 1943, Ch. 1007; Code Supp. 1943, Art. 66 1/2, § 12. The Commissioner is authorized by the Act to deliver upon request a certified copy of any public record of the Department, and to charge a fee of 50 cents for each document so authenticated, except when it is *449 required or requested by any court or department of the State, and to pay all fees received from such source, like other funds received, into the State Treasury. The Act further provides that any such copy shall be admissible in any proceeding in any court in like manner as the original thereof. Laws of 1943, Ch. 1007; Code Supp. 1943, Art. 66 1/2, § 11.
It is understood that the right to inspect public records, in the absence of statutory direction, must be exercised subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as it may be necessary for the custodian to impose in the interest of orderly government of the office. Thus, in the absence of statute, the court will not command a custodian of public records to permit inspection of the records contrary to a reasonable rule fixing the hours when the office in which they are kept will be open to the public. Uptonv. Catlin,
Attention has been called to the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Act, which was adopted by the Legislature in 1945, and which provides for suspension of the license of every operator and all registrations of every owner of a motor vehicle involved in any accident in this State in which any person is killed or injured or in which damage amounting to more than $50 is sustained to the property of any one person, unless such operator or owner had liability insurance or shall deposit security. This Act, which took effect on January 1, 1946, provides that neither the written report required to be made immediately after any such accident, nor the action taken by the Department thereon, nor *450
the findings of the Department upon which such action is based, nor the security filed with the Department shall be referred to in any way or be any evidence of the negligence or due care of any party at the trial of any action at law to recover damages. Laws of 1945, Ch. 456, Sec. 110H. While the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Act of 1945 makes every report of a motor vehicle accident inadmissible in evidence at the trial of a suit for damages, it does not repeal the provision of the State Motor Vehicle Act of 1943 that all records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, other than those declared by law to be confidential, shall be open to public inspection during office hours. The law does not favor repeals by implication, unless there is a manifest inconsistency between the earlier and later statutes, or unless their provisions are so repugnant and irreconcilable that they cannot stand together. No Court should ever hold that a statute has been repealed except where the language of a later statute shows plainly that the Legislature intended a repeal. State v. Clifton,
Mandamus is a remedy which comes down to us from the past when the Judges of the Court of the King's Bench issued the writ or not as they saw fit. According to the theory of the common law, the King was the fountain of justice, and where the laws did not afford a remedy and enable the individual to obtain his right by the regular forms of judicial proceedings, the prerogative *451
powers of the sovereign were sought to supplement the ordinary judicial powers of the Court. Thus mandamus, like habeascorpus, became known as a prerogative writ because it was issued only by exercise of the extraordinary power of the Crown on proper cause shown. Today, however, the theory that mandamus is a prerogative writ no longer has force in America. In UnionPacific R. Co. v. Hall,
It is well settled that where the duty of a public official requires the exercise of discretion, mandamus will not be granted to control his decision. Wailes v. Smith,
We realize that the right of a private citizen to inspect public records, while theoretically absolute, is in actual practice limited by the basic principle that *452
mandamus is not demandable ex debito justitiae but is granted only in the sound discretion of the Court. In other words, the writ is not issued as of mere course, but will be granted only where the Court is satisfied that it will serve some just or useful purpose. George's Creek Coal Iron Co. v. AlleganyCounty Com'rs,
The Attorney General of Maryland, representing the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, contended that the petitioner cannot maintain this action in his own name, but must bring it in the names of his clients. He argued that the attorney has no more right to institute a mandamus proceeding in his own name than an attorney has to institute suit for damages in his own name to redress wrongs suffered by his client. It is true, of course, that an attorney is not a party to a suit in which he merely represents a litigant. Conley v. Fenelon,
As the petitioner alleges that he finds it necessary in his practice to inspect certain records in the Department, and his request for permission to inspect them has been refused as a result of the Commissioner's arbitrary and unlawful action, we must reverse the action of the Court in dismissing the petition. We appreciate the fact that the issuance of a writ of mandamus to enforce the petitioner's right must rest to some extent in the discretion of the Court, and the writ will be granted or withheld depending upon the facts and circumstances of the particular case. However, the discretion accorded to the Court must not be arbitrary, but must be exercised in accordance with the established rules of law. Tolbert v. Philadelphia, B. W.R.Co.,
The petitioner prays for an order to command the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to keep open to inspection all reports "which have been and will be received by the Department." This prayer is too broad. It should ask for the performance of a definite duty which arises under conditions shown to exist and imposed by existing law. State of Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wall. 475, 18 L.Ed. 437, 440. The writ of mandamus, if issued at all, must issue as prayed. Walter v. Board of County Commissioners ofMontgomery County,
Order reversed, and cause remanded for further proceedings. *454
Dissenting Opinion
MARKELL, J., dissents on the ground that the petition does not show any such legal right of the petitioner as might entitle him to the writ of mandamus. Jones v. House of Reformation,
