JESSE MELTON and JESSE BANKS, Appellants, v. REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA, Appellee.

MOTION TO DISMISS APPEAL.

Argued April 11, 1934. Decided April 20, 1934.

1. Every appeal must be taken and perfected within sixty days after final judgment except in cases in admiralty.

2. Failure to file an appeal bond duly executed and signed by the trial judge within the time prescribed by laW is a ground for dismissal of the appeal by the appellate court.

3. Where a bill of exceptions is not signed by the trial judge within the statutory time and the appeal comes up to this Court, said appeal will be dismissed.

Appellants, defendants in the court below, were convicted of attempting to bribe jurors and appealed to this Court. This is a motion to dismiss the appeal. Appeal dismissed.

S. David Coleman for appellants. The Attorney General for appellee.

MR. JUSTICE DOSSEN delivered the opinion of the Court.

Jesse Melton and Jesse Banks, appellants, defendants in the court below, were charged and convicted in a summary trial for attempting to bribe jurors, and being dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial judge, excepted and appealed to this Court upon a bill of exceptions. At the call of the case for adjudication, appellee submitted a motion to dismiss the appeal and to affirm the judgment of the court below; and predicated said request upon the following grounds, to wit :

“1. Because appellee says that the appeal was not filed within the statutory time in that the final judgment in said proceedings was rendered on the 15th day of March A. D. 1933, and the appeal was completed only on the 23rd day of December A. D. 1933, which is contrary to the statutory laws governing appeals.

“2. And also because appellee says that there is no appeal bond filed in this case as is required by law.

“3. And also because appellee says that the bill of exceptions filed in these proceedings is not approved by any judge as is required by law.”

While we do not hesitate to say that the right of appeal is vouchsafed by the statutes of this country to any person against whom a judgment has been rendered, yet said right is regulated by statutes which must be strictly followed, and any appeal taken without a strict compliance with said statute will operate against the enjoyment of said right. The record shows that the final judgment in these proceedings was rendered on the 15th day of March, 1933, while the appeal was not completed until the 23rd day of December, 1933. Every appeal must be completed or perfected within sixty days after final judgment except in cases of admiralty, when the appeal must be taken within twenty days. Statutes of Liberia (Old Blue Book), ch. XX, p. 78, § 6; 1 Rev. Stat. 494, § 424; cf., 2 R.C.L. 167, § 143, “Dismissal of Appeal.”

Count one of appellee’s motion to dismiss appeal should therefore be sustained.

With reference to the objections set forth and contained in count two of appellee’s motion to dismiss, this Court will here remark that one of the essential requisites to a legal appeal is an “appeal bond.”

“Every appellant shall give a bond in an amount to be fixed by the court with two or three sureties, who shall be householders or freeholders within the Republic, to the effect that appellant will indemnify the appellee from all costs and from all injury arising from the appeal, and will comply with the judgment of the court to which the appeal is taken or any other to which the cause may be removed. Appeal bonds are to be approved by the judge of the court from which the appeal is taken within sixty days after final judgment. . . . If such bond is not given, the appeal shall be dismissed.” Statutes of Liberia (Old Blue Book), ch. XX, p. 78, § 8; 1 Rev. Stat. 495, § 426; cf.. 2 R.C.L. 112, § 88 under “Bond.”

The appeal bond is therefore an essential requirement to the perfecting of a legal appeal, and when same is omitted, as in this case, or fatally defective, said appeal will be dismissed by the appellate court. For it is not until the appeal bond shall have been approved by the trial judge and the appeal perfected that the clerk of said court can issue notice to the appellee informing him that the appeal is taken and to what term of the court, and directing said appellee to appear and defend same; which said notice served and returned by the ministerial officer of said court places appellee under the jurisdiction of the appellate court. Count two of appellee’s motion to dismiss is therefore sound in law, statute and common, and should be sustained. McBurrough v. Republic, [1901] LRSC 7; 1 L.L.R. 385 (1901 ).

Passing on to count three of appellee’s said motion, by an inspection of the record filed in this case, we observe that the foundation of the appeal is seriously defective and bad in that the bill of exceptions is not approved by the trial judge, which defect is incurable and renders said appeal without legal effect. A bill of exceptions is a formal statement in writing of exceptions taken to opinions, rulings, decisions and judgments of a judge in the course of a trial and constitutes the foundation of an appeal; hence where it does not appear in the records of the appeal duly signed by the trial judge, the omission is fatal. “The court cannot assume responsibilities and burdens of which any party may fail to avail himself in the incipient stage of a case, much as it might be anxious to give relief. It is the duty of litigants for their own interest to so surround their causes with the safeguards of the law as to secure them against serious miscarriage, and thereby pave the way to the securing of the great benefits which they seek to obtain under the law.” “Litigants must not expect courts to do for them that which it is their duty to do for themselves.” Yates v. McGill Brother, I L.L.R. 2 (1861); Blacklidge v. Blacklidge, id. at 371 (1901).

“It shall be the duty of the party appealing from any decision or judgment of any court of record or judge thereof, which does not appear upon the face of the ordinary proceedings in the case, to cause such decision or judgment, with the evidence and prayer or motion upon which it is founded, to be reduced to writing and to have the same signed by the judge from whose decision or judgment the appeal is taken ; and it shall be the duty of such judge to sign the same. This instrument shall be called a bill of exceptions, and shall be annexed to the Clerk’s record of the proceedings in the case, and shall be considered as a part of it.” Statutes of Liberia (Old Blue Book), ch. XX, p. 78, § 3; r Rev. Stat. 495, § 425.

This Court having gone carefully through the relevant parts of the record filed in these proceedings, the law governing appeals, and the grounds raised by appellee in his motion to dismiss the said appeal, we are of the opinion that the motion should be sustained, appeal dismissed, and the trial court notified to resume jurisdiction; and it is so ordered.

Appeal dismissed.