118 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.

therein, as hereinbefore provided; and in addition to his duties as Judge
of the Court of Appeals, shall perform such other duties as the General
Assembly shall prescribe. The jurisdiction of said Court of Appeals shall
he co-extensive with the limits of the State, and such as now is or may here-
after he prescribed by Law. It shall hold its sessions in the City of Annap-
olis, on the first Monday in April, and the first Monday in October; [on
the second Monday in January, the first Monday in April and the first
Monday in October] 1 of each and every year, or at such other times as
the General Assembly may by Law direct. Its sessions shall continue not
less than ten months in the year, if the business before it shall so require;
and it shall be competent for the Judges temporarily to transfer their
sittings elsewhere upon sufficient cause.

The legislature may confer on the court of appeals the right to hear appeals in
special cases, but such law must leave the judicial functions of the court untram-
meled. The act of 1862, ch. 2, authorizing the court of appeals to hear and deter-
mine the appeal of the state against the Northern Central Railway Company, held
valid. State v. Northern Central Ry. Co., 18 Md. 210; Prout v. Berry, 2 Gill. 147.
The act of 1809, ch. 125—see art. 42 of the An. Code—empowering the judges
of the court of appeals in vacation to grant the writ of habeas corpus, held to be
still in force under the Constitution of 1851; but art. 4, sec. 2, of that Constitution,
was designed to withhold the above powers from the court of appeals as such. The
above powers, however, may be claimed by the individual judges of the court of
appeals under art. 4, sec. 6, of the Constitution. The legislature cannot confer
original jurisdiction upon the court of appeals, though that court may grant a
mandamus, certiorari or other appropriate writ, in aid of its appellate jurisdiction.
Ex parte O'Neill, 8 Md. 227; Sevinskey v. Wagus, 76 Md. 336; Hendrick v. State,
115 Md. 558.

The act of 1835, ch. 339, authorizing any party to a cause to have a transcript
of chancery proceedings transmitted to the court of appeals for the purpose of get-
ting its opinion touching the validity of certain acts and on such other points as
the parties might by agreement have submitted to the lower court, held unconsti-
tutional. Lawrence v. Hicks, 2 G. & J. 386.

An appeal lies from the order of the court of common pleas removing a trustee
in insolvency and dismissing a petition for the benefit of the insolvent laws; such
right of appeal is not taken away by sec. 28. Van Nostrand v. Carr, 30 Md. 130.
As to appeals, see art. 5 of the An. Code.

Sec. 15. Four of said Judges shall constitute a quorum; no cause shall
be decided without the concurrence of at least three; but the Judge who
heard the cause below shall not participate in the decision; in every case
an opinion, in writing, shall be filed within three months after the argu-
ment or submission of the cause; and the judgment of the court shall be
final and conclusive; and all cases shall stand for hearing at the first term
after the transmission of the record.

The portion of this section requiring a written opinion to be filed within three
months, is directory and not mandatory. Reargument denied. McCall's Ferry Co. v.
Price, 108 Md. 112.

The portion of this section requiring a written opinion in every case and provid-
ing that the judgment of the court shall be final and conclusive, held not to require
court of appeals to express opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions;
this section contemplates action by the court of appeals which will be effective and
binding. State v. Shields, 49 Md. 305.

The portion of this section requiring a written opinion to be filed in three months,
construed not to apply where a case is affirmed because the judges of the court of
appeals are equally divided. Johns v. Johns, 20 Md. 61.

The portion of this section providing that "the judgment of the court shall be
final and conclusive," applied in a habeas corpus case. State v. Glenn, 54 Md. 595.

1 Terms thus arranged by act of 1886, ch. 185.