Ex Parte General News Bureau, Inc.

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant corporation was adjudged to1 be in contempt of the Criminal Court of Baltimore City for failure to obey its summons to appear and produce certain documentary evi ⁶⁴⁵ den.ce desired by the court to aid it in ascertaining the extent of criminal betting and bookmaking operations for which two defendants had been indicted, tried, and convicted, and were about to be sentenced. In the course of their trial it appeared that the basement in which they conducted their unlawful enterprise was connected by telephone and switchboard with the office of the present appellant, and through it with many other locations. In order to determine as to a proper sentence for the convicted defendants, the court was endeavoring to learn whether they were engaged in a separate and restricted illegal venture, or were promoting an extensive system of prohibited bookmaking.

The records of the appellant were required by the court for that purpose, since the telephone company was unable to supply the necessary information. A summons for the appellant to produce the requisite records was taken by the sheriff to its office and left with employees there in charge, who delivered the paper to the general manager; but it was disregarded. A citation for contempt was then issued against the appellant and served on a clerk in its office, there being no superior officer or agent available for service of the process. Thereafter a motion to quash the citation was filed on behalf of the appellant by counsel who appeared specially for the purposes of the motion, which asserted that its corporate name is the General News Bureau, Incorporated; that it is engaged in the business of collecting and distributing sporting information, but has no connection with any organization known as General News Service, to which the court’s summons was addressed; that the General News Bureau, Incorporated, the appellant, was never legally summoned in the case; that it was never mentioned at the trial of the defendants in regard to whose prospective sentences the summons addressed to General News Service was issued; that the court had no jurisdiction to conduct the intended inquiry because it had no proper relevancy to the imposition of the sentences; and that the appellant never had in its possession any such records as the summons indicated.

The motions to quash the citation was overruled, and no defense on the merits ⁶⁴⁶ being interposed, the appellant was fined $2,500 for contempt. A second summons duces t&cwrn was issued against the appellant and served on a clerk in its office; tbe sheriff certifying in his return that there was no other officer or agent with whom to‘ leave the summons. Motions to quash the writ were filed by the appellant, through counsel specially appearing, on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to issue the writ when a verdict and judgment had been entered and the only remaining action was the imposition of a sentence, to which the evidence sought by the subpoena had no proper relation; that the appellant is a foreign corporation maintaining an office in the City of Baltimore, but having no resident agent in Maryland; that the statutory provision (Code art. 23, see. 118) for process against foreign corporations refers only to proceedings against them as defendants and does not subject them to summons for testimony or the production of records; and that the appellant was not lawfully served with the writ. The court overruled those motions and issued a citation against the appellant for the contempt involved in its disobedience of the second subpoena.

The service of this citation was wholly ignored, and after the appellant had failed to take advantage of the ample opportunity given it to make a defense, it was again adjudged to be guilty of contempt and for its second offense was fined $10,000. It has appealed from the judgments imposing the two penalties. The point that the first summons was directed to General News Service, and not to' General News Bureau, Incorporated, is highly technical. It was intended for the corporation bearing the latter name (Western Union Tel.

Co. v. State, 82 Md. 293 , 33 A. 763 ), and was served at its office upon “a person in its service” with whom a copy of the suL poena was left, as provided by section 118 of article 23 of the Code. The sheriff's return shows the service to have been made upon the appellant in its correct corporate name. It is provided by section 117 of article 23 of the Code that every foreign corporation doing business in this state shall be ⁶⁴⁷ deemed thereby to have assented to all the provisions of its laws. Corporations are made amenable as defendants, in criminal cases instituted by