218 A.2d 678
[No. 290, September Term, 1965.]Court of Appeals of Maryland.
Decided April 25, 1966.
APPEAL — Order Directing That No Depositions Be Taken For Use In This Libel Case, Until After Defendants’ Demurrer Had Been Ruled Upon By Trial Court, Held To Be An Interlocutory Order From Which No Immediate Appeal Lay. p. 712
Decided April 25, 1966.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County (EVANS, J.).
Action by David S. Jenkins against Andrew Jackson Graham and others seeking damages for an alleged libel. From an order directing that no depositions be taken for use in the case until after the defendants’ demurrer had been ruled upon by the trial court, the defendants appeal.
Appeal dismissed; the appellants to pay the costs.
The cause was argued before PRESCOTT, C.J., and HAMMOND, MARBURY, BARNES and McWILLIAMS, JJ., and CARTER, J., Chief Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit, specially assigned.
Andrew Jackson Graham, with whom were Julian S. Brewer, Jr., and Harry I. Kaplan on the brief, for the appellants.
No brief and no appearance for the appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Appellants were sued by the appellee in an action claiming damages for an alleged libel. They demurred to the declaration. Appellee requested an immediate hearing on the demurrer, and it was twice assigned for such a hearing, but on both occasions it was postponed at the request of appellants’ counsel. Before hearing on the demurrer, the appellants filed notices to take the depositions of 17 persons and 13 orders to issue writs of subpoena
Page 712
duces tecum. At the request of one of the prospective deponents, Judge Evans signed an order directing that “no depositions be taken for use in the * * * case until after the defendants’ demurrer shall have been ruled upon by this court [the trial court].” Appellants appealed, and no brief was filed by the appellee.
Apart from the fact that the order seems to be no more than a proper exercise of the authority granted the trial judge by Maryland Rule 405 a 3, it is an interlocutory order from which no immediate appeal will lie.
Appeal dismissed; appellants to pay the costs.