Tidewater Portland Cement Co. v. State

Pattison, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant company was, on the 16th day of May, 1913, indicted in the Circuit Court for Carroll County, charged with maintaining a nuisance in the operation of its plant located in the town of Union Bridge, Carroll County, Maryland. On June 4th, 1913, a suggestion was filed by the defendant company, under the oath of its vice-president and manager, that it could not have a fair and impartial trial in the Circuit Court for Carroll County, and asked that the record be transmitted to some other Court having jurisdiction in such case, for trial. With the suggestion were filed excerpts of articles published in certain newspapers of Carroll County commenting upon the conditions complained of in the indictment, in terms condemnatory of the defendant company.

Affidavits of a number of citizens of the county were also filed and the oral testimony of others was taken in open Court, expressing their opinion that the appellant could not have a fair and impartial trial in the Circuit Court for Carroll County, owing to the feeling and prejudice existing against it, evidenced by the said newspaper excerpts and the ⁹⁸ expressions of citizens of the county relative to the existing conditions, caused, as it is alleged, by the improper management and operation of the company’s plant. The Court after considering the aforesaid excerpts, affidavits and testimony taken, refused to grant the order transmitting the record to some other Court for trial, and this appeal was at once taken from that order. We will first consider and determine whether this ease is properly before us. Section 8 of Article 4 of the Constitution of this State, as it now stands, after the adoption by the people at the November election, 1875, of the amendment proposed by the Acts of 1874, Chapter 864, provides that, “In all suits or actions at law, issues from the Orphans’ Court or from any Court sitting in Equity, and in all cases of presentments or indictments for offenses which are or may be punishable by death pending in any of the Courts of law of this State having jurisdiction thereof, upon suggestion in writing under oath of either of the parties to said proceedings, that such party cannot have a fair and impartial trial in the Court in which the same may be pending, the said Court shall order and direct the record of proceedings in such suit or action, issue, presentment or indictment, to be transmitted to some other Court having jurisdiction in such case, for trial; but in all cases of presentment or indictment pending in any of the Courts of law in this State having jurisdiction thereof, in addition to the suggestion in writing of either of the parties to such presentment or indictment that such party cannot have a fair and impartial trial in the Court in which the same may be pending, it shall be necessary for the party malcing such suggestion to malee it satisfactorily appear to the Court that such suggestion is true, or that there is reasonable ground for the same” In all cases of presentment or indictment for offenses which are or may be punishable by death, either of the parties to such presentment or indictment, upon making the required suggestion under oath, is entitled, as a matter of right, to ⁹⁹ have the record of proceedings transmitted to some other Court having jurisdiction, for trial.

In such cases the right of removal is not dependent upon the judgment or discretion of the Court to which the suggestion is made, and an order refusing to remove the case finally adjudicates a constitutional right of the party affected thereby, and such order is regarded as a judgment from which, according to the nature