George F. Sloan & Bro. v. Locust Point Co.

Stone, J. delivered the opinion of the Court. The appeal in this case must be dismissed. It is an appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Baltimore City, striking out a judgment of condemnation in an attachment case obtained in that Court, and which was stricken out during the term at which it was rendered. It hardly needs any authority to show that, as a general rule, all judgments remain, during the term at which they were rendered, under the control of the Court in which they were obtained.

Such judgments may be stricken out for fraud, surprise, mistake, or irregularity in obtaining the same, or other good reason addressed to the sound discretion of the Court at any time during the term. Such a power in the Courts is clearly necessary for the purposes of justice. It is equally obvious that the correction of its records during each term must be left to the sound legal discretion of the Court, and, being a matter of such discretion, no apqieal is allowed. This is the general rule.

As we understand them, the appellants concede this; but they insist that the case of an attachment, such as the one before us, is an exception to the general rule. No authority has been shown for such a contention, and we hardly think, any can be found. Every reason ³³⁷ that can be shown for allowing a Court, to strike out, during the term, an ordinary judgment, applies with equal, if not greater, force to judgments obtained in attachment cases. Fraud, mistake, irregularity, or surprise, are as liable to occur iu the entry of a judgment in an attachment case as any other.

It makes no sort of difference whether it is a case of attachment on warrant, or an attachment upon judgment by way ef execution; the same liability to error exists, and the same duty rests upon the Court to correct the