What was the “First” Appellate Court in the Colonial Americas?
By Michael Wein
With the coming New Year, reflection and reexamination on the past is natural, to understand and fully appreciate the challenges and hopes for the coming year. At least in Maryland, the history of “appeals” has not been the focus of determinate scholarly debate, internally, or in comparison to other jurisdictions. For example, did you know that appellate courts in the Colonial Americas may have preexisted Thanksgiving, and that the first appellate court continues to be the subject of debate?
If this were the game show Jeopardy! and the “Answer” was “[t]his was the first appellate court established in the Western Hemisphere,” many people might instinctively say the United States Supreme Court. However, it is certainly not the Supreme Court, as part of the U.S. Constitution, Congress’ 1789 Judiciary Act, and a first “session” with Justices in 1790. Instead, the correct response choices include not only Massachusetts (including Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies), but also Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania in North America, and the Real Audiencia in Latin America. These are all “colonial” appellate courts tracing to at least the 1600s, well-before the Supreme Court. A brief description of each contender follows.
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December 2017 Maryland Certiorari Grants
Seasons greetings from the Maryland Appellate Blog! Is there a better gift than news of freshly-granted writs of cert? You be the judge—the Court of Appeals of Maryland granted seven today. Read More…
#AppellateTwitter’s “cleaned up” craze hits Maryland
By Steve Klepper (Twitter: @MDAppeal)
If you’re on Twitter, you may have come across the campaign by Jack Metzler (@SCOTUSplaces) to convince attorneys and judges to use a new parenthetical. Metzler has found remarkable success in a short time, and that success is now official in Maryland.[*]
Two reported opinions of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, released on Friday and Monday, included the parenthetical “(cleaned up)” at the end of a citation and dropped a footnote to explain this strange new creature. Read More…
Maryland’s top court will review order directing investigation of Clinton attorneys
On Friday, the Maryland Court of Appeals posted two more certiorari grants. One is Attorney Grievance Commission v. Clevenger. When the trial court ruled in September, Chase Cook of the Capital Gazette described the ruling under review:
Circuit Court Judge Paul F. Harris Jr. ruled Monday after a short hearing in Annapolis that the Attorney Grievance Commission and Office of Bar Counsel Maryland Office of Bar Counsel must investigate attorneys David E. Kendall, Cheryl D. Mills and Heather Samuelson. All three are licensed to practice in Maryland and could face professional sanctions if the commission determines there are guilty of misconduct.
Ty Clevenger, a Texas attorney who lives in New York, filed the complaint, saying they deleted thousands of emails related to a private email server Clinton used during her time as Secretary of State. He argued they engaged in misconduct by destroying evidence.
In granting review, the Court of Appeals bypassed the Court of Special Appeals. The full list of certiorari grants, including questions presented, appears after the jump. Read More…
Event: Maryland Impact Cases, November 28
On the evening of Tuesday, November 28, 2017, the MSBA Section of Litigation and its Appellate Practice Committee will be presenting a panel, Maryland Impact Cases, at the Court of Appeals courtroom in Annapolis. The panel includes the always-entertaining Senior Judge Glenn T. Harrell, Jr., alongside Carrie Williams (Chief of the OAG’s Criminal Appeals Division) and Tim Maloney.
Please join us for an evening of networking, dialogue, and presentations discussing recent impact decisions from Maryland’s appellate courts. You can register here.
Information is below:
Robert C. Murphy Courts of Appeal Building
Fourth Floor
361 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, MD 21401
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Social Hour Reception – Foyer to the Courtroom
Cash Bar (Beer & Wine) & Hors D’oeuvres
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. – Court of Appeals Courtroom
Speaker Presentations and Audience Questions
$20.00 for MSBA Litigation Section Members
$35.00 for others
Please register at this link http://www.msba.org/Events/Section_Events/Maryland_Impact_Cases_112817.aspx
or by mailing your check payable to the MSBA, Attention: Angela Munro, 520 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201.
Hurry because space is limited.
November 2017 Maryland Certiorari Grants
The Court of Appeals of Maryland today granted certiorari review in five appeals. The list of grants, including questions presented, appears after the jump. For the two cases where there are Court of Special Appeals opinions, we have provided a link. Read More…
Four more October 2017 Maryland certiorari grants include three juvenile life sentences
The Maryland Court of Appeals has posted four additional certiorari grants following yesterday’s monthly conference. Three of them involve challenges to juvenile life sentences (including a dispute whether a 100-year sentence counts as a life sentence). The full list, including questions presented, appears after the jump. Read More…
October 2017 Maryland Certiorari Grants
The Maryland Court of Appeals has posted six certiorari grants. The list is heavy on procedural questions, such as the “prison mailbox rule” and interlocutory appeals in criminal cases. (Incidentally, Michael Wein posted yesterday about civil interlocutory appeals.) The list of grants, with questions presented, appears after the jump. We’ve added, in brackets, a link to the Court of Special Appeals opinion. Read More…
Death of adult with Down syndrome shows difference between federal and Maryland interlocutory appeals
By Michael Wein
A Washington Post article dated September 13, 2017, discussed the upcoming oral arguments and the expectation was that it could “takes months” for a decision, in the death of Robert Ethan Saylor, an adult with Down Syndrome, who after refusing to leave a movie theater, to watch a second showing of Zero Dark Thirty, lead to his tragic death by sheriff deputies in Frederick, Maryland. The Fourth Circuit didn’t think months were necessary, and in a one-page opinion, two weeks later, affirmed Federal Judge William Nickerson’s 65-page decision finding genuine disputes of material facts. Read More…
Assistant AG Matthew Fader appointed to Court of Special Appeals
From this morning’s press release:
Governor Larry Hogan today announced the appointment of Matthew J. Fader to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The governor made the appointment after reviewing nominees from the judicial nominating commission.
“I am confident that Mr. Fader is the most qualified candidate to fill the vacancy on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals,” said Governor Hogan. “I would like to congratulate him on this appointment, and I know that he will serve the people of Maryland well in this new role.”
Matthew J. Fader has served as an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Attorney General since June 2010 and is currently the Chief of Civil Litigation for the State of Maryland. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s office, Mr. Fader was a partner at the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhardt, LLP, an international law firm, where he represented clients in commercial litigation in federal and state courts, as well as arbitrations. He also counseled clients with respect to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Mr. Fader served as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice from 1999-2002. Mr. Fader received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School where he served as Senior Editor on the Yale Law Journal.
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