Armstrong v. Mayor of Hagerstown

Miller, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This was an action of assumpsit hy the appellees against the appellant to recover city taxes levied on certain hank-stock and other personal property of the latter. The case was submitted to the Court below upon an agreed statement of facts, in which it was admitted that the property upon which the appellant insisted the corporate authorities of Hagerstown had no right to impose a tax, amounted, in hank-stock, to $7,910, and in personal securities, to $200; that the tax levied was sixty cents on the hundred dollars, and that if the Court should be of opinion the bank-stock was liable to taxation for municipal purposes, a judgment should he entered against the appellant for $47.46, and if of the same opinion as to the personal securities, a judgment for $1.20 for that also should be given, and, by the agreement, each party reserved the right of appeal to this Court. The Court decided that both were liable to taxation, and in accordance with the agreement, entered up judgment for $48.66, the amount of the two sums agreed upon.

From this judgment an appeal has been taken. It is not denied that, as the ⁵⁶ amount recovered in this form of action does not exceed fifty dollars, the Court below had no jurisdiction to render this judgment. It, therefore, appears upon the face of this record that a judgment has been entered which the Court had by law no authority to render, and an error of this character going to the jurisdiction of the Court to enter up the particular judgment, is open in this Court on appeal or writ of error. Watkins vs. State, 14 Md., 412 ; Webster vs. Cockey, 9 Gill, 92 .

It is not a case to which the provisions of the Code, Art. 5, sec. 12 apply. The only action which this Court can take, is to reverse