Hooker v. Sawyer

Irving, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This cause was tried on the nineteenth day of August, 1818, during the May Term and session of the Circuit Court for Harford County. On that day, the -judgment appealed from was rendered by the Court, the s'ame having been tried before the Court without the intervention of a jury. On the same day, both the record sent up, and a copy of the docket entries, which, by agreement, supplement the record, show there was a “demurrer ” to evi ⁴⁶⁹ dence, which was overruled by the Court.

The appellee contends that this demurrer or objection to the evidence, did not come in time to be made the subject of exception, and insists that the docket entries so establish. We do not find it necessary to settle this contention; for whether such was or was not the case, the exceptions were not prepared and signed in time to entitle the appellants to a review in this Court. It appears that the exceptions were signed by the ' Judge on the tenth day of June, 1879, and they were filed in the cause on the next day. The appeal was taken, and the affidavit that it was not taken for delay, was made on the 14th of December, 1878 ; nearly six months before the exceptions, on which the appeal is based, were signed by the Judge.

In certifying the exceptions, the Judge says: “The demurrer being overruled, and the verdict and judgment of the* Court being for the plaintiff, the defendants except, and pray the Court to sign and seal this, their bill of exceptions, which is accordingly done, this tenth day of June, 1879, as of the 19th of August, 1878; and I hereby certify, that the delay in making out and sending up the record, is not attributable especially to the defendants, the Court not being able, from delays in getting counsel together, to pass upon