Chayt v. Board of Zoning Appeals

Shehan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from an order of the Baltimore City Court, and raises the question whether this order conforms to, and carries out, the terms of a mandate of the Court of Appeals in the case wherein Leon Chayt, and his wife, had brought suit for the purpose of restraining the Maryland Jockey Club and Frainie Brothers, from erecting on certain lots of ground owned by the Jockey Club a stable of frame construction. In the case wherein this mandate was passed, being No. 27 at the October Term, 1939 (see Chayt v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 177 Md. 426 ), it appears that the appellants were the owners and occupants of a dwelling house to the North of the Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore City. Frainie Brothers had contracted with the Jockey Club to erect a stable on its lands which lay outside of the northwest corner of ⁴⁰² its track enclosure at the rear of appellants’ dwelling house.

The appellants then filed a petition in the Baltimore City Court appealing from the action of the Zoning Board in granting a permit to erect this stable, and praying an injunction to prohibit the building of this structure. The Baltimore City Court affirmed the order of the board and dismissed the petition. Thereupon an appeal was taken and in a decision rendered December 13th, 1939, and reported in 177 Md. 426 , 9 A. 2nd 747, this court reversed the order of the lower court, holding that, under the Baltimore City Zoning Ordinance, the stable could not be constructed, since the lot involved was subject to residential zoning restrictions and this court passed the following order, “the order appealed from must be reversed and the case remanded for passage of an order restraining the use as proposed, because not permitted under the Zoning Ordinance of the City.” The case being thus remanded, the lower court issued an order restraining the use of the property, “pursuant to the permit granted in accordance with the Order of the Board of Zoning Appeals dated September 27, 1938.” These complainants appealed from this order, contending that it did not give to them relief as directed by the mandate, because it does not conform to it. The order only restrains the use of the property, “as a stable, pursuant to the permit granted in accordance with the Order of the Board of Zoning Appeals dated September 27th, 1938,” and thus limiting the injunction to this particular permit instead of enjoining the use of the property for the building of a stable.

It is contended that the mandate went much further than dealing with the particular permit, but applied to the use of the lots for any stable, and so the order as passed clearly modified and restricted the terms and provisions of the mandate as handed down. There can bé no question that the lower court cannot revise or disregard any mandate of this court. The Consitution of Maryland provides, article 4, section 15, with respect to appeals to this court, “The judgment of the court shall be final and conclusive,” and it is obvious ⁴⁰³ therefore, as stated in the case of Waters v. Waters, 28 Md. 11 , at page 22: “No principle is better established than that a decision of the Court of Appeals once pronounced in any case is binding upon the court below * * * and cannot be disregarded or called in question. It is the law of the case binding and conclusive upon the parties, not open to question or examination afterwards in the same case.” And it is obvious that if the order departs from the mandate either by allowing more or less than contained in its terms, it is illegal and subject to review by this court.

If the effect of the