State Ex Rel. Byrd v. Warden of Maryland House of Correction

Markell, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal, by leave granted by this court (Code, Art. 42, sec. 3C), from an order remanding petitioner for a writ of habeas corpus to custody under sentence of a Prince George’s County trial magistrate to two years in the House of Correction for “manslaughter by automobile”. The question presented is whether a trial magistrate has jurisdiction, under Art. 52, sec. 13 (as amended by the Act of 1945, ch. 845) and especially under the last paragraph of section 13, to try a case of alleged “manslaughter by automobile”. Pending this appeal, the question, though not presented in precisely the same form, has in effect been decided by this court.

In Robb v. State, 190 Md. 641 , 60 A. 2d 211 , it was held that under section 13 a trial magistrate had jurisdiction over such a case in the first instance and the Circuit Court had jurisdiction on appeal by the State from a judgment of not guilty. Manifestly the Circuit Court could not have had jurisdiction on appeal unless the trial magistrate had jurisdiction in the first instance. The Act of 1941, ch. 414, provides that “every person causing the death of another as the result of the driving, operation or control of an automobile, motor vehicle, locomotive, engine, car, street car, train or other vehicle, in a grossly negligent manner, shall be ⁶⁷² guilty of a misdemeanor to be known as ‘manslaughter by automobile, motor vehicle, locomotive, engine, car, street car, train or other vehicle’ ” and “shall be sentenced to jail or the House of Correction for not more than three years” or be fined or be both fined and imprisoned. Art. 27, sec. 436A.

The act prescribes a short form of “indictment or warrant” for the offense. Art. 52, sec. 13(a) (not changed since 1914 in any respect now material) provides that trial magistrates shall have jurisdiction to try “all cases involving the charge of any offense, crime or misdemeanor, not punishable by confinement in the Penitentiary or involving a felonious intent.” The last paragraph (added in 1943) provides that “in the trial of all charges of any offense, crime, or misdemeanor, except motor vehicle cases, * * * the proceedings and the method of trial, the right to demand a jury trial and the right to appeal” shall be such as are prescribed by section 13(b) (not changed since 1914 in any now material respect), and such paragraph [13(b)] shall be deemed applicable to “every such offense, * * *, except motor vehicle cases, whether now or subsequently defined, unless the statute defining them declares, by specific reference, that this section shall not apply.” Petitioner contends that “manslaughter by automobile” is a “motor vehicle case.” Except with respect to “the right to demand a jury trial and the right to appeal”, and certain procedural details in “motor vehicle cases” the jurisdiction of trial