c PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY

civil actions, the Lower House having resolved that the Quaker Affirmation Act,
7 & 8 Wm. III, c. 34 (1696), was "thought to be in force in this province." 57

The verdicts delivered by the jurors, after retiring for a "small time" to con-
sider thereof, were general verdicts in such form as "we find for the plaintiff" or
"we find for the defendants" or that "the Defendant doth owe to the said plaintiff
the sum of two thousand one hundred and ninety pounds of tobacco part of the
sum said in the plaintiff's declaration aforesaid" or that "the Defendant doth not
owe to the said plaintiffe the said sum of six hundred and eighty pounds of tobacco
as the plaintiff in his plea aforesaid has alleged." Following the verdict the court
upon motion by plaintiff or defendant, depending on the verdict, would award
judgment accordingly. In no case did a jury return a special verdict. In no case was
there a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto or judgment notwithstanding
the verdict.

An interesting deviation from English practice appears in the first jury trial
in a civil case entered in the Liber, Huggins v. Bennett, a plea of trespass on the
case tried in August 1696. 58 In English practice where the jurors were agreed
and returned to the bar, before they delivered their verdict the plaintiff was bound
to appear in court, by himself or by his attorney, in order to answer the amercement
to which by law he was liable, in case he failed in his suit, as a punishment for his
false claim. Even when amercements were no longer in use in England, the form
still continued and if the plaintiff did not appear, no verdict could be given but
the plaintiff was nonsuited. Therefore it was customary for a plaintiff, when he
perceived that he had not presented evidence sufficient to maintain his issue, to
voluntarily nonsuit himself by withdrawal from court. The crier was then ordered
to call the plaintiff; if he or his counsel did not appear, he was nonsuited, the
jurors discharged and the action was at an end, defendant recovering costs. The
reason for this practice was that a nonsuit was more desirable to plaintiff than a
verdict against him; for after a nonsuit, which was only a default, he might com-
mence the same suit again on the same cause of action; but after a verdict had and
judgment consequent thereupon he was forever barred from suing defendant on
the same ground of complaint.

However, in Huggins v. Bennett after the jurors had returned "the plaintiffe
being Called neither he nor his attorney did not Appeare. But the Court demanded
of the Jurors aforesaid to Deliver in their verdict." Their verdict was that defendant
did not owe plaintiff the 1000 pounds of tobacco as alleged in the declaration. The
court then considered that Huggins take nothing by his writ but be in mercy for
his false clamor and that defendant recover his costs and charges (the amount be-
ing left blank in the Liber). If this was an attempt by Joshua Cecil, plaintiff's at-
torney, to profit by his knowledge of English practice, it miscarried. However, it
should be noted that the Prince Georges practice was consistent with that of the
Provincial Court, at least for an earlier period, and in at least one county (Balti-
more) it was necessary to embody the English practice in a rule of court.59

57. 19 id. 448, 461.

58. Infra 28-29.

59. For the Provincial Court see 65 MA 158. Cf. the reasons for appeal in Tench v. Hopkins, an
appeal to the Provincial Court from the County Court of Anne Arundel County. PMCA 68. The
rules of the Baltimore County Court provided (BCCP, Liber G, No. 1, 558): "Ordered also that in
every Action being tryed by a Jury at the time when such Juryes shall returne into Court in Order
to give in their Verdict upon the matter of Controversie as they had in Charge after the Jury are
called and before the Verdict be given in the Clerk shall call both Plaintiff and Defendant by
their proper names who if they appear then the Clerk shall proceed to demand for whom they
find But in Case the said Plaintiff shall not appear at the time of his being called as aforesaid