Opinion ID: 2313529
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Trial Court Jurisdiction to Issue Writs of Certiorari

Text: The first issue we address is which trial courts have jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari directed to the Justice of the Peace Court in summary possession cases. The Superior Court has issued inconsistent opinions on this issue. That inconsistency has caused much confusion in the Bar over where to file petitions for writs of certiorari, both generally and in summary possession cases. Chelsea on the Square Apts. v. Justice of the Peace Court No. 13, suggests, without analysis or explanation, that the Court of Common Pleas may issue a writ of certiorari to the Justice of the Peace Court in summary possession cases. [9] However, in Howell v. Justice of the Peace Court No. 16, a different Superior Court judge concluded that Superior Court had jurisdiction to issue a writ of certiorari directed to the Justice of the Peace Court in summary possession cases. [10] The Superior Court, as the descendent of both the pre-1831 Supreme Court and Court of Common Pleas, has both original and exclusive trial court jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari directed to the Justice of the Peace Courts. Before 1831, the Supreme Court and the Court of Common Pleas were Delaware's trial courts of law. [11] These two courts were statutorily vested with the same jurisdiction as the justices of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancellor of the Exchequer of England. [12] The English law courts had the power to issue writs of certiorari and thus, before 1831, the Supreme Court and the Court of Common Pleas had concurrent jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari. [13] The Delaware Constitution of 1831, however, eliminated the Court of Common Pleas and vested a new Superior Court with the same jurisdiction as the pre-1831 Supreme Court and Court of Common Pleas. [14] Like its predecessor trial court, the post-1831 Superior Court had the same jurisdiction as the King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancellor of the Exchequer of England. [15] In addition, since at least 1873, the General Assembly, by statute, explicitly vested in the Superior Court jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari. [16] The 1897 Constitution superseded the 1831 Constitution. Under Article IV, § 7 of the Delaware Constitution of 1897, the current Superior Court shall have jurisdiction of all causes of a civil nature, real, personal and mixed, at common law and all the other jurisdiction and powers vested by the laws of this State in the formerly existing Superior Court.... [17] In Rash v. Allen in 1910, the Superior Court, sitting as a Court in Banc, held that: From this review of the constitutional provisions of our State, it is manifest that since 1831, the power of the Superior Court to issue writs of certiorari, and hear causes thereon, has been and is constitutional; and such being the case we think it will not be seriously contended that a jurisdiction which is constitutional could be taken away by statute. [18] Thus, the genesis of the Superior Court's authority to issue writs of certiorari is constitutional. No statute may strip the Superior Court of that power. Indeed, the Delaware General Assembly has explicitly, (although perhaps redundantly) vested the Superior Court with that power by statute. [19] 10 Del C. § 562 provides that the Superior Court may frame and issue all remedial writs, including writs of habeas corpus and certiorari ... [20] Therefore, and from any perspective, the Superior Court's jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari cannot be questioned. Current confusion arises over whether 10 Del C. § 1324 has altered the Superior Court's exclusive jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari. It is clear, given the plain meaning of the Constitution of 1897, that no General Assembly may, by statute, divest Superior Court of its authority to issue writs of certiorari to inferior tribunals. But did the General Assembly by enacting 10 Del C. § 1324 intend to grant the Court of Common Pleas concurrent jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari to the Justice of the Peace Court? The modern Court of Common Pleas became a constitutional court under Article VI, § 7B of the Delaware Constitution of 1897 in 2005. [21] That provision mandates that the Court of Common Pleas shall have all the jurisdiction and powers vested by the laws of this State.... [22] Thus, the General Assembly may, by statute, determine the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas. The only statute addressing the processing of writs in the Court of Common Pleas is 10 Del. C. § 1324, which predates the Court of Common Pleas's change in status from a statutory to a constitutional court. [23] Section 1324 does not vest the Court of Common Pleas with any statutory authority to issue a writ of certiorari to the Justice of the Peace Court. [24] That statutory language simply provides: The Court shall have all the powers of a court of record possessed by the Superior Court of the State in the endorsement of its writs, rules, processes, the attendance of witnesses, the requiring of security for costs from nonresident plaintiffs, the production of documents, books and records and the production of all other necessary evidence. [25] In the legal context, endorsement or indorsement refers to [t]he placing of a signature, sometimes with an additional notation, on the back of a negotiable instrument to transfer or guarantee the instrument or to acknowledge payment or [t]he signature or notation itself. [26] In the ordinary context, endorsement means essentially the same thing, with definitions including [a]n act of endorsing, [s]omething, as a signature or voucher, that endorses or validates, [s]anction: approbation, or [a]n amendment to a contract, as an insurance policy, allowing a change in the original terms. [27] Applying these definitions, both the Superior Court in Howell and the Court of Common Pleas in Brandywine determined that the only reasonable way to interpret this provision is to conclude that where the Court of Common Pleas does have power to issue writs, those writs should be accorded the same power and legal weight as those writs issued by the Superior Court. [28] We agree with this interpretation. But 10 Del. C. § 1324 does not grant the Court of Common Pleas authority to issue writs. That statute merely provides the Court of Common Pleas the same power to endorse its own writs, i.e. only those writs statutes explicitly authorize the Court of Common Pleas to issue. If elsewhere the Court of Common Pleas were separately granted the authority to issue a writ of certiorari to inferior tribunals, it could endorse that writ with the same legal effect and in the same manner as the Superior Court endorses its own writs. 10 Del. C. § 1324 does not independently vest authority in the Court of Common Pleas to issue a writ of certiorari. It only directs that the Court of Common Pleas handle its writs in the same way Superior Court does. Unlike the comparable empowering statutes governing the Superior Court (10 Del. C. § 562) or the Supreme Court (10 Del. C. § 142), § 1324 does not address any specific writs. In no provision of the chapter treating the Court of Common Pleas does the Delaware Code even imply that writs of certiorari would be included. [29] Other provisions of the Code, however, do identify specific writs that can be issued by the courts in general. [30] The General Assembly has defined the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas with regard to certain writs [31] and of the Superior Court and Family Court with regard to others. [32] The exclusion of writs of certiorari from the statutes that do grant jurisdiction to the courts generally, and to the Court of Common Pleas specifically, evidences the General Assembly's intent, consistent with the Constitution of 1897, to limit the power to issue writs of certiorari to the Supreme Court and the Superior Court. Therefore, the Superior Court has original, and exclusive, trial court jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari to the Justice of the Peace Court in summary possession cases. The Superior Court has original and exclusive trial court jurisdiction to issue common law writs of certiorari to all inferior tribunals. The Court of Common Pleas cannot issue common law writs of certiorari for any purpose. Although now a constitutional court, Common Pleas has no current power to issue statutory writs of certiorari.