Lovejoy v. Irelan

Bartol, J., delivered the opinion of this Court: The proceedings which have heretofore been had in this case, will be found reported in 17 Md. Rep., 525 . By the opinion of the Court, then pronounced, it was decided that the appeal ought to be dismissed. And after a re-argument of the question, the Court adhered to their original decision. The first decision was rendered at the June term, 1860, and the decree was signed at that term.

Subsequently it was discovered, by the appellee’s solicitor, that the decree passed in the cause, instead of dismissing the appeal, in conformity with the opinion which accompanied it, was a decree dismissing the hill. And, at the June term, 1862, when the error was first discovered, this motion Avas made to have the decree amended, and the error therein corrected. ⁵⁷ The motion is resisted on the ground tliat this Court has no power to correct the decree after the term at which it was passed has expired. In the case of Burch, et al. vs. Scott, 1 G. & J., 393 , the Court of Appeals decided that a decree of the Court of Chancery must be considered as enrolled when it is signed by the chancellor and filed by the register, and the term has elapsed during which it was made. And in that case it was held, “that it was not consistent with the salutary exercise of that sound discretion which the Court of Chancery possesses, to open or discharge the enrollment upon petition, and vacate the decree, for the ■purpose of enabling the defendant to make his defence.” The general rule is, “that every decree stands, and must be allowed to stand, for what it purports to be upon its lace, until it has been revised or reversed in a proper and solemn maimer.”