State v. Lowber

2 Del. Cas. 557, 1820 Del. LEXIS 15
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedJune 8, 1820
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Del. Cas. 557 (State v. Lowber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lowber, 2 Del. Cas. 557, 1820 Del. LEXIS 15 (Del. 1820).

Opinion

The Chancellor.

An indictment was found against John Lowber, one of the Justices of the Peace for Kent County, at the November Sessions, 1819, for altering a counterfeit bank note. It was tried at May Sessions, 1820, and Lowber was convicted by the jury, and the court passed judgment against him. On an application made to this Court on the 8th instant for the allowance of a writ of error to be directed to the Court of Quarter [558]*558Sessions of the Peace, or for the order of this Court to be made on the Attorney General for his fiat for a writ óf error, a preliminary question has arisen, which is, whether this Court has any jurisdiction in writs of error to be issued to the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Gaol Delivery.

This question was argued by Mr. BrincJcle on behalf of Lowber, in the absence of the Attorney General. In expectation that he would attend this Court by three o’clock P. M. on the 9th instant, the argument was postponed until that period. He did not attend; and after argument by Mr. BrincJcle, the Court has taken time until this morning to consider the question.

By the eighth article of the constitution, this Court is created with power to issue writs of error to the Supreme Court and fi> the Court of Common Pleas, and to receive and determine appeals from the interlocutory or final orders or decrees of the Chancellor. No notice is taken of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Gaol Delivery, eo nomine.

The Act entitled “An Act for the better regulation of the Supreme Court within this government,” passed in the year 1760, 1 Del.Laws 374, made the Supreme Court a court of error to hear and determine all pleas, plaints and causes removed or brought there from the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace by writs of habeas corpus, certiorari, and writs of error. As this Act in this has not been specially repealed, the Supreme Court will have jurisdiction to grant the writ of error in the first instance, and not this Court, unless the Act is inconsistent with the constitution. We are of opinion that this Act, in relation to the writ of error, and we touch nothing else, is inconsistent with the constitution, and that it has been repealed thereby, so far as it respects the exercise of this jurisdiction by the Supreme Court.

The eighth article of the constitution gives to the High Court of Errors and Appeals the power to issue writs of error to the Supreme Court. If then the Supreme Court has the power to issue a writ of error to the Court of Quarter Sessions, this Court,, by this provision, may issue a writ of error to the Supreme Court, and the consequence would be, that the same judges whose judgment had been reviewed by the judges of the Supreme Court would sit here to affirm or reverse their judgment. This would be great incongruity and contrary to the whole spirit of the judicial system. The power given to this Court to issue a writ of error to the Supreme Court is express and positive. When the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction from the Orphans’ Court in cases where that court has original jurisdiction, it is declared that the decision of the Supreme Court shall be final,. [559]*559Constitution, Art. 6, s. 15. So where an appeal is given to the Supreme Court from the Register’s Court, there their decision is final, Constitution, Art. 6, s. 17; and consequently in those cases no writ of error can be issued by this Court to the Supreme Court. This is a case in which the decision of the Supreme Court, according to the “Act for the better regulation of the Supreme Court,” would not be final; and it would be within the power given to this Court to issue writs of error to the Supreme Court, and, of course, the judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions, sitting in this Court, would review a judgment which had affirmed or reversed their own, which would be inconsistent with the constitution. We therefore think that the constitution has repealed that part of the “Act for the better regulation of the Supreme Court” which made the Supreme Court a court of error to review the judgment of the Court of Quarter Sessions.

Again, the eighth section of the Act to regulate the courts in this state, 2 Del.Laws 1088, never was designed to be applied to the removal of an indictment after judgment rendered in the Court of Quarter Sessions. It was intended merely to prevent the removal of indictments into the Supreme Court from the Court of Quarter Sessions before the trial of such indictments. Before that law was enacted, the Supreme Court by the Act, 1 Del.Laws 374, had power to issue a writ for the removal of indictments from the Court of Quarter Sessions into that court before trial; and to make the law in this respect more consonant to the constitution this Act was passed taking away this power. The fourth section is somewhat explanatory of the Act and seems to show that the whole of it was intended to prevent the removal of civil suits and of indictments before trial. If the section were applicable to the removal of indictments after judgment, it would take away the writ of error in all cases upon indictments in the Court of Quarter Sessions, for the Act speaks of writs of error, habeas corpus, and certiorari to be sued forth by any person or persons to stay or remove any indictment found or depending in the Court of Quarter Sessions, or thereafter to be found or depending, except for capital offences, without speaking of writs to be issued by the Supreme Court, or by this Court. It applies as well to this Court as to the Supreme Court. No particular court is restrained from issuing the writ. But the Court of Quarter. Sessions is required not to receive or allow any such writ. If it means a writ of error after judgment, how will the party remove the record into this Court? If this Court has jurisdiction in criminal matters, and the Act is applicable to the removal of indictments after judgment, the law is unconstitutional: if it was passed to prevent the removal of indictments before [560]*560judgment, the law is consistent and constitutional. This Act of Assembly has no bearing on the subject.

By the Act for establishing courts of law and equity within this government, 1 Del.Laws 121, s. 5, a writ of error is given to every person grieved by the judgment of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Gaol Delivery, to be granted of course, in manner as other writs of error were to be granted and made returnable to the Supreme Court. And so by the Act for the better regulation of the Supreme Court, 1 Del.Laws 374, ss. 2, 5, there is like provision made for writs of error. These sections, so far as they relate to giving the party a remedy to be relieved from an erroneous judgment of the Court of Quarter Sessions, have not been repealed by any subsequent Act; neither are they inconsistent with the constitution. The Justices of the Supreme Court cannot award the writ. But inasmuch as this Court is made a court of errors, all the remedy given to the party by the Acts before mentioned still remains to him and can be exercised by this Court, except in cases where that power has been vested in some other court. The party’s remedy is as complete now as it was before the making the constitution, though it is to be exercised by a different tribunal.

It is evident from Mr. Reed’s note d, 1 Del.Laws 124, and note f, 2 Del.Laws 1090, that he considered that this Court had jurisdiction in cases of writs of error directed to Court of Quarter Sessions.

In The Case of Paine, the jurisdiction of the Court was not questioned.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 Del. Cas. 557, 1820 Del. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lowber-del-1820.