Court Opinion

ID: 9733221
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:58:18.924339+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:39.485823
License: Public Domain

McAULIFFE, Judge,
dissenting.
When Respondents filed their timely appeal on 7 May 1986, the record and docket of this case in the Circuit Court for Frederick County showed that the judgment from which the appeal was taken finally disposed of all the claims between all the parties who were before the court. What did not appear of record was the fact that at some unspecified time a Pennsylvania corporation named as an additional defendant had been served by mail with original process. The majority apparently infers that the summons issued on 17 January 1986 was served before its expiration sixty days later, that service was made upon the registered agent or a proper officer of the corporation as required by Maryland Rule 2-124(c), and that a copy of the complaint as well as the summons was served by restricted delivery certified mail. These inferential findings are supported only by the statement made by counsel at oral argument to the effect that “we served somebody up there named. Green Acres.” Moreover, the inference that service was accomplished during the life of the summons, i.e., prior to 19 March 1986, stands in apparent conflict with the certification made by Respondents’ counsel to the Court of Special Appeals on 14 May 1986 that “although a private defendant has also been named, plaintiffs have been unable to locate said defendant.”
A proper return is prima facie evidence of valid service of process. Sheehy v. Sheehy, 250 Md. 181, 185, 242 A.2d *533153 (1968). In this case, however, Respondents had not filed a return as to Green Acres, Inc. at the time of oral argument, and for all we know, they have never filed such a return. Considering the substantive and procedural requirements for valid mail service on an out-of-state corporation, the general statement of counsel that Green Acres, Inc. was served should not be sufficient to abort this appeal.
Additionally, and more importantly I disagree with the majority’s holding that the docket entries in a case are not controlling on the issue of whether a party is before the Court within the meaning of Rule 6-202. Precious few things are certain in the law of final and appealable judgments and I would not introduce additional uncertainty. I would hold that the docket entries as they exist at the time of the filing of an appeal are controlling on the question of which parties are before the Court within the meaning of that Rule. On rare occasions this approach will result in a piecemeal appeal, i.e., an appeal allowed even though an additional party has in fact been served before the appeal is noted. On balance, that is a small price to pay for the peace of mind and certainty that results from allowing the record to control for purposes of this Rule. According dignity to the record will hardly break new ground.
Formerly the acts and judicial proceedings of certain courts were enrolled in parchment for a perpetual memorial, which rolls were called the record of the court, and were considered of such high and supereminent authority that their truth was not to be called in question. It was from this fact that these tribunals derived their name of courts of record. In modern courts the parchment roll is discarded, but their records still retain their character as a judicial memorial of “high and supereminent authority.” The court hears arguments upon its records; it decides upon its records; it acts by its records; its openings and sessions and adjournments can be proved only by its records; its judgments can only be evidenced by its *534records—in a word, without its records it has no vitality. (Footnotes omitted.)
7 R.C.L. § 45, at 1017-18 (1915).
In Forest Lake Cemetery v. Baker, 113 Md. 529, 535-36, 77 A. 853 (1910), after quoting the rule that then pertained to the responsibility of the clerk to keep records and dockets 1 our predecessors said:
One of the objects of these rules is to secure an accurate record of all proceedings in a case, in order that persons interested may by an examination of the docket entries ascertain the exact state of the proceedings, and while parties are ordinarily bound to take notice of all papers filed in the case, they are not required to examine the proceedings in other cases, of which they have no notice, before acting upon the state of the record in the case in which they are interested.
The approach I favor is consistent with a policy decision of this Court made in 1984 by the adoption of Rule 2-601. Prior to that time, there was considerable uncertainty concernirig the effective date of a judgment. For example, where a judge signed an order granting judgment, the question remained whether the effective date of the judgment was the date of the order, or the date it was given to the clerk, or when stamped “filed,” or when entered upon the docket. The decision was made to promote uniformity and certainty by providing that the date of the judgment is the date it is entered on the file jacket or docket. Rule 2-601(b).
The approach taken by the majority promotes uncertainty. For example, had the Plaintiffs obtained a judgment against the State Highway Administration in this case, that Defendant would have been required to enter an appeal *535within thirty days. If, in fact, Green Acres, Inc. had been served prior to the entry of judgment, the docket did not disclose that fact. Thus, a seemingly final judgment could proceed through briefing, argument, and decision in the Court of Special Appeals, and briefing and argument before this Court (as this case did) before the Plaintiff elected to file a return evidencing the earlier service, and according to the majority, wiping out all the intervening appellate action.
The majority is concerned that if any other approach is taken an appeal would occasionally be allowed even though a party whose rights have not been fully adjudicated is before the trial court. That is not a significant problem. The same situation will occur when a defendant is served one day after the judgment is entered or one day after the appeal has been taken, and although the appeal in those cases will be piecemeal, I do not understand the majority to hold that such service would defeat the appeals. Accommodating important and sometimes competing interests in this area of finality of judgments is difficult at best. Accordingly, we should choose the path that offers the greatest certainty and the least opportunity for unnecessary expense, inconvenience, frustration, and expenditure of judicial resources.
Holding that a party is not before the court for purposes of Rule 2-602 until a return of service has been filed (or the party has entered an appearance) would not in any way affect the operation of Rule 2-126(g) which provides that “[fjailure to make proof of service does not affect the validity of the service.” Valid service would remain valid in the absence of a return, but without a return the party would not be treated as being before the court for the purposes of Rule 2-602.
I would hold that the appeal was taken at a time when the docket entries demonstrated that the judgment was final within the meaning of Rule 2-602, ánd I would proceed to a decision of this appeal on the merits.

. The Court referred to Equity Rules 2 and 3. Currently, see Rules 1216 and 1217(b), and Annot. Code of Md. (1974, 1984 Repl. Vol.) Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, § 2-201.