Calvert v. Williams

Grason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The decree in this case was passed on the 24th day of January, 1870, from which the complainants appealed on the 24th day of February • Richard Williams, one of the defendants, appealed on the 21st day of October, and on the 24th day of October, 1870, Lloyd W. Williams, trustee, and Cramphin, one of the defendants, appealed. The first appeal taken, was by the complainants, and as Cramphin is a defendant, that appeal does not at all affect his right to appeal, pending the first appeal, provided it was ⁶⁷³ taken in time. By the ninth rule, adopted by this Court, all appeals from decrees or orders of Courts of Equity, shall be taken and entered within nine months fiom the date of the decree or order appealed from, and not afterwards; except it be alleged on oath that the decree or order was obtained by fraud or mistake, in which case the appeal shall be taken within two months from the time of the discovery of the fraud or mistake.

The tenth rule provides that all transcripts of records shall be made and transmitted to the Court of Appeals within six months from the time of the appeal prayed. The decree in this case, as we have already stated, was passed on the 24th day of January, 1870, and the defendant, Cramphin, prayed his appeal on the 24th day of October, 1870, and the question presented is, whether his appeal is in time ? If the day on which the decree bears date and the day when the appeal was prayed, are both to be included in the computation of time, the appeal was not taken within nine months from the date of the decree; but if the day of the date of the decree is to be excluded, then the appeal is in time. We have carefully examined and considered the authorities upon this point, and find that there is so much conflict in them, that no general rule is deducible from them, but each case seems to have been decided upon its own peculiar circumstances.

Some of the authorities, both English and American, make a distinction between those cases where time is to be computed from an act done, and those where it is to be computed from the date, and the day of the date; including the day of the act done in the former, and excluding the day of the date in the latter, and this rule was recognized in the cases of