Walker v. Director, Patuxent Institution

Per Curiam. The applicant, Robert Wesley Walker, was convicted of being a rogue and vagabond by Judge James A. Perrott, sitting without a jury, in the Criminal Court of Baltimore on June 23, 1967, and was sentenced to two years under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction. On the same day, Judge Perrott ordered the applicant transferred from the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction to the custody of the Director of Patuxent Institution for examination and evaluation to determine whether or not he was a defective delinquent. Upon examination, it was the opinion of the staff of the Institution that he was a defective delinquent.

The applicant was subsequently adjudged to be a defective delinquent in a jury trial on October 22, 1968. Application for leave to appeal was filed in which the following allegations were made. ²⁰⁸ 1. That the trial court erred in overruling applicant’s objections to the State’s answers to interrogatories. 2. That the trial court erred in refusing to submit to the jury a requested list of special issues. 3.

That the evidence was insufficient to support a finding that applicant is a defective delinquent. 4. That the applicant was denied due process of law by the procedure under which he was examined and tried on the issue of whether he was a defective delinquent. I On- May 13, 1968, the applicant filed a series of interrogatories, which were answered by the State on July 1, 1968. On July 3, 1968, the applicant filed exceptions to the State’s answers to the interrogatories.

In its answers to the interrogatories the State had responded that the information requested was contained in the official file of the Patuxent Institution relating to the applicant and that this entire file was available to applicant’s counsel at the Patuxent Institution. At a hearing before Judge J. Harold Grady on the applicant’s exceptions, applicant’s counsel stated that he was aware that the entire Patuxent file was open to him but took the position that the State should supply the information requested from the Patuxent file. There was no suggestion that any record relating to the applicant was being withheld. Judge Grady overruled the applicant’s exceptions, stating that the information sought in the applicant’s interrogatories was available to the applicant in the same way and to the same extent that it was available to the State, and that in the present case the availability of the entire file at Patuxent accomplished the purpose of the Maryland discovery procedure.

It is clear that the lower court is vested with discretion in administering the rules concerning discovery and that a decision made in the exercise of that discretion will not be disturbed in the absence of a showing of its abuse. Williams v. Moran, 248 Md. 279, 291 (1967). Under the instant circumstances we find no showing of such abuse. ' The Court of Appeals has stated that: “One of [Maryland’s discovery- rules’] fundamental ■ ²⁰⁹ and principal objectives is to require the disclosure of fads by a party litigant to all of his adversaries, and thereby to eliminate, as far as possible, the necessity of any party to litigation going to trial in a confused or muddled state of mind, concerning the facts that gave rise to the litigation. If all of the parties have knowledge of all of the relevant, pertinent and non-privileged facts, or the knowledge of the existence or whereabouts of such facts, the parties should be able properly to prepare their claims and defenses, thereby advancing the sound and expeditious administration of justice.” Williams v. Moran, supra at 291.

This statement of the fundamental objective of the rules of discovery has found application in the line of cases dealing with discovery in defective delinquent proceedings, which are civil proceedings. Chavez v. Director, 5 Md. App. 45, 46 (1968). In Gray v. Director, 245 Md. 80 (1966) one contention raised was that the State failed to answer certain interrogatories. The Court of Appeals found satisfactory the State’s answers that the information requested was available to applicant’s counsel at Patuxent during the normal working hours of the Institution.

In McCloskey v. Director, 245 Md. 497 (1967) an issue was whether an inmate who desired to appear pro se at his redetermination hearing could examine the records and all other information at Patuxent which was to be used by the State. The Court of Appeals stated, in reversing the trial court’s refusal to permit him to do so, that the defendant should have had the discovery procedures under the Maryland Rules available to him but that “no prejudice would have resulted to the defendant had the court permitted him access to the records, papers, and other properly discoverable information bearing on the case.” (emphasis supplied). In