Wilmer v. Light Street Savings & Building Ass'n

²³⁹ Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The controlling question, on this appeal, is- whether the Circuit Court of Baltimore City had jurisdiction to hear and determine this cause, on removal to it for trial, from Circuit Court No. 2, o-f Baltimore City, and to pass the decree dated the 19th of November, 1921, which is set out in the record. From this decree an appeal has been taken. It appears from the record that the plaintiff helow, the appellant here, filed an amended bill of complaint, on the .13th of December, 1920, for an account and discovery, against the defendants, the appellees here, in the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City, and asked for the usual process o-n the bill.

The defendants appeared o-n the 24th and 25th of January, 1921, and answered the amended bill. On the 31st of October, 1921, the following suggestion and affidavit for removal was made by the defendants-, in Circuit Court No. 2, of Baltimore City: “The Light Street Savings and Building Association of Baltimore City, the Ridge Realty Company, the Savings and Loan Association of Baltimore City, and Isaac Merowitz, the defendants in the above entitled case, they believe that the judge sitting in said court will not give a fair and due consideration to the subject-matter of said case, and pray the court to order and direct the removal of the record of proceedings in this case to some other judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City to render a final decision thereon.” On the 31st day of October, 1921, it was ordered by the Circuit Court No. 2, of Baltimore City, “that the record and proceedings, and a copy of the docket entries under seal in the abo-ve entitled case he transmitted fo-r trial to the Circuit Court of Baltimore City.” The Circuit Court No. 2, of Baltimore City, was without authority and clearly in error, we think, in ordering the ²⁴⁰ record and proceedings of this case to be transmitted for trial to the Circuit Court of Baltimore City. These courts are both separate and distinct courts of equity, with exclusive j urisdiction in equity, within the limits of the City of Baltimore. The Circuit Court of Baltimore City was one of the courts established and provided in and for the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Maryland, by section 27 of article 4 of the Constitution of 1867, and with exclusive jurisdiction in equity,- as stated in section 29, article 4, of the Constitution.

The Circuit Court Number Two of Baltimore City was established in and for the City of Baltimore, as an additional court for the city, by chapter 194 of the Acts of 1888. The powers and jurisdiction of this court, it was provided by the act, shall be concurrent with those now held and exercised by the Circuit Court of Baltimore ’City, and both of said courts shall have the same terms and return days, subject to such rules and regulations for a proper distribution and apportionment of business between them, as the Supreme Bench of Baltimore shall from time to time prescribe. Section 2 of the Act of 1888 also provided for the election of another judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, and the said judge, when elected, to be subject to all the provisions of the Constitution relating to the Supreme Bench in Baltimore City and the several judges thereof. By section 8 of the same act (1888), it was also provided that there shall be elected at the same election, by the legal and qualified voters of