Opinion
[H.C. No. 114, September Term, 1957.]
Decided May 27, 1958.
HABEAS CORPUS — Appeal Statute — Not Applicable to Detention at State Hospital on Doctors' Certificate. There is no right to apply for leave to appeal in a habeas corpus case unless the confinement is a result of a prosecution for a criminal offense. Code (1957), Art. 42, § 7. Accordingly, the Court held that the detention of petitioner in the instant case at Spring Grove State Hospital, by authority of Art. 59, § 31, and of his commitment on the certificate of two doctors, was not detention of the character set forth in Art. 42, § 7. pp. 652-653
J.E.B.
Decided May 27, 1958.
Habeas corpus proceeding by Joseph R. Ramberg against the Superintendent of the Spring Grove State Hospital. From a refusal of the writ, petitioner applied for leave to appeal.
Application denied, with costs.
Before BRUNE, C.J., and HENDERSON, HAMMOND, PRESCOTT and HORNEY, JJ.
In this application for leave to appeal from the denial of a writ of habeas corpus, it appears that petitioner was convicted and sentenced on a charge of drunken driving, and efforts to obtain a release were denied. Ramberg v. Warden, 209 Md. 631. He was transferred to Spring Grove State Hospital and his sentence expired on October 29, 1957. However, prior to that date, on October 25, 1956, he was committed on certificate of two doctors, and is now being detained under Code (1957), Art. 59, sec. 31. As we have repeatedly held, there is no right of appeal in a habeas corpus case unless the confinement is a result of prosecution for a criminal offense. Code (1957), Art. 42, § 7; Miller v. Superintendent, 198 Md. 659, and cases cited. His present detention is not of that character.
Application denied, with costs.