Court Opinion

ID: 9767214
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:12:56.429765+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:29.361237
License: Public Domain

Murphy, C.J.,

dissenting:

While I am in complete accord with the Court’s disposition of the merits of this case, I would dismiss the appeal on the jurisdictional ground that the orders denying the motions to quash were not properly appealable as final judgments within the contemplation of Maryland Code (1980 Repl. Vol.), § 12-301 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article.1
In Re: Special Investigation No. 244, 296 Md. 80, 459 A.2d 1111 (1983), involved, as here, an appeal from the denial of a motion to quash a grand jury subpoena. The Court there referred to the general Maryland rule that a final judgment from which an appeal may be taken is one which settles the rights of the parties or concludes the cause. The Court reasoned that because the proceeding to quash the subpoena was the only matter before the trial court the judgment was final and appealable under § 12-301 of the Courts Article since nothing remained before the court. In so concluding, the Court recognized that its holding was unsupported by any other state or federal jurisdiction. It relied in part upon a dissenting opinion in In Re: Petition of Arlen Specter, 455 Pa. 518, 317 A.2d 286 (1974), wherein the dissenting justices expressed the view that such an order was appealable because a person should not be obliged to decide whether he *210should risk contempt in order to test the validity of a grand jury subpoena. In adopting this philosophy, the majority echoed the dissenting justice’s position when it stated that "in this day and age a person should [not] be obliged to decide whether he should risk contempt in order to test the validity of a [grand jury] subpoena duces tecum . . . .” 296 Md. at 86.
The settled rule in other jurisdictions is that an order denying a motion to quash a grand jury subpoena is not appealable unless and until the person to whom the subpoena is directed refuses to comply and is adjudged in contempt. See United States v. Ryan, 402 U.S. 530, 91 S. Ct. 1580, 29 L. Ed. 2d 85 (1971); Cobbledick v. United States, 309 U.S. 323, 60 S. Ct. 540, 84 L. Ed. 783 (1940); State v. Grover, 387 A.2d 21 (Me. 1978); Commonwealth v. Winer, 380 Mass. 934, 404 N.E.2d 654 (1980); Petition of Specter, 455 Pa. 518, 317 A.2d 286 (1974); State v. Threet, 294 Or. 1, 653 P.2d 960 (1982). Of primary concern to these courts has been the effective administration of the criminal law. As the Supreme Court said in Cobbledick:
"To be effective, judicial administration must not be leaden-footed. Its momentum would be arrested by permitting separate reviews of the component elements in a unified cause. These considerations of policy are especially compelling in the administration of criminal justice... . An accused is entitled to scrupulous observance of constitutional safeguards. But encouragement of delay is fatal to the vindication of the criminal law.. ..
"In thus denying to the appellate courts the power to review rulings at nisi prius, generally, until after the entire controversy has been concluded, Congress has sought to achieve the effective conduct of litigation. For purposes of appellate procedure, finality ... is not a technical concept of temporal or physical termination. It is the means for achieving a healthy legal system. As an instrument of such policy the requirement of *211finality will be enforced not only against a party to the litigation but against a witness who is a stranger to the main proceeding. Neither a party nor a non-party witness will be allowed to take to the upper court a ruling where the result of review will be 'to halt in the orderly progress of a cause and consider incidentally a question which has happened to cross the path of such litigation...’ Mr. Chief Justice Taft, in Segurola v. United States, 275 U. S. 106, 112. This is so despite the fact that a witness who is a stranger to the litigation could not be party to an appeal taken at the conclusion of the main cause.” 309 U.S. at 325-26.
Regarding the grand jury particularly, the Court stated:
"The Constitution itself makes the grand jury a part of the judicial process. It must initiate prosecution for the most important federal crimes. It does so under general instructions from the court to which it is attached and to which, from time to time, it reports its findings. The proceeding before a grand jury constitutes 'a judicial inquiry,’ Hale v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 43, 66, of the most ancient lineage. See Wilson v. United States, 221 U. S. 361. The duration of its life, frequently short, is limited by statute. It is no less important to safeguard against undue interruption the inquiry instituted by a grand jury than to protect from delay the progress of the trial after an indictment has been found. Opportunity for obstructing the 'orderly progress’ of investigation should no more be encouraged in one case than in the other.” Id. at 327.
Finally, the Court explained the reasoning behind application of different rules for court proceedings related to administrative agencies and for on-going grand jury proceedings:
"After the court has ordered a recusant witness to testify before [an administrative agency], there *212remains nothing for it to do. Not only is this true with respect to the particular witness whose testimony is sought; there is not, as in the case of a grand jury or trial, any further judicial inquiry which would be halted were the offending witness permitted to appeal. The proceeding before the district court is not ancillary to any judicial proceeding. So far as the court is concerned, it is complete in itself.” Id. at 330 (emphasis added).
State courts have likewise recognized the detrimental effect appeals from orders denying motions to quash subpoenas would have on the functioning of the grand jury. In State v. Threet, supra, the Supreme Court of Oregon stated:
"Grand jury proceedings, which often require quick resolution, would be disrupted by allowing appeals from these orders.... Allowing appeals from [such] orders . .. might abort grand jury proceedings in some cases.” 653 P.2d at 963.
Permitting a recalcitrant witness, absent a contempt citation, to take an immediate appeal from an order denying a motion to quash a grand jury subpoena is certain to have a devastating effect on the grand jury system in Maryland. That it will thwart the orderly business of the grand jury and possibly bring its proceedings to a complete standstill pending actual availability of critical testimony and records is equally plain. In view of these consequences, I share the view espoused by the cases that a contempt citation is an absolute prerequisite to the right to appeal — a prerequisite which is justified by "the necessity for expedition in the administration of the criminal law.” See United States v. Ryan, supra, 402 U.S. at 533.
While appellate jurisdiction in this State is dependent upon a statutory grant of power, Lohss and Sprenkle v. State, 272 Md. 113, 321 A.2d 534 (1974), the authorizing statutes 2 do not specify what is a final appealable judgment *213or order; that determination is left to the case law. Peat & Co. v. Los Angeles Rams, 284 Md. 86, 394 A.2d 801 (1978); Warren v. State, 281 Md. 179, 377 A.2d 1169 (1977). In determining that an order denying a motion to quash a grand jury subpoena is immediately appealable, the Court, without considering the strong countervailing considerations of public policy so evident in this matter, has misapplied the general language of the rule that a final judgment for appeal purposes in Maryland is "one which settles the rights of the parties or concludes the cause.” Unlike the cases which support the majority rationale, there remains, after the denial of a motion to quash, the further judicial inquiry of a grand jury — an inquiry which must come to a sudden halt under a rule which permits a reluctant witness to delay the inquiry for the all too long period frequently required before an appellate decision can be rendered. I would dismiss the appeal as not taken from a final judgment.

. Section 12-301 provides, in pertinent part:
"Except as provided in § 12-302 [entitled Exceptions!, a party may appeal from a final judgment entered in a civil or criminal case by a circuit court....”

. In addition to § 12-301 of the Courts Article, § 12-101 (f) of that article defines a final judgment as meaning "a judgment, decree, sentence, order, *213determination, decision, or other action by a court, including an orphans’ court, from which an appeal, application for leave to appeal, or petition for certiorari may be taken.”