ANSIMANNIAH SILLAH, Appellant, v. REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA, Appellee.

MOTION TO DISMISS APPEAL IN PROSECUTION FOR ASSAULT AND BATTERY WITH INTENT TO KILL. Argued October 10, 1960. Decided December 16, 1960. A criminal appeal may properly be dismissed only on statutorily specified grounds. On motion to dismiss an appeal in a prosecution for assault and battery with intent to kill, motion denied. M. M. Johnson for appellant. Assistant Attorney General J. Dossen Richards for appellee. MR. JUSTICE HARRIS delivered the opinion of the Court. At the call of this case for hearing, this Court was informed that the appellant had filed a motion to dismiss the appeal. The motion was ordered read and we quote it hereunder, word for word : “Now comes J. Dossen Richards, Assistant Attorney General, representing the Republic of Liberia, appellee in the above-entitled cause, and respectfully moves this Court to dismiss the appeal of the appellant, and submits the following legal reasons : (I I. Because appellee says that the notice of the completion of the appeal by which this Court takes jurisdiction over the appellee is materially and fatally defective and bad, in that it is issued in violation of the mandatory provision of the statute and the decisions of this Court in relation to the Sheriff of Montserrado County instead of the appellee as the law directs. “Wherefore plaintiff prays that the appeal be dis- LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS 193 missed and the judgment of the lower court affirmed.” To the above motion the appellant filed a resistance containing two counts, the first of which we deem necessary to quote for the benefit of this opinion, and which reads as follows : “r. Because appellant says that the paper filed by appellee’s counsel for the dismissal of the appeal is unmeritorious and lacks legal foundation. Appellant submits that neither our statutes nor the decisions referred to constitute sufficient legal grounds for the dismissal of an appeal. And this appellant is ready to prove.” Since the handing down of the decisions of this Court relied upon by the appellee in his motion to dismiss the appeal, we have a statute on dismissal of criminal appeals which we must strictly adhere to, and we hereunder quote that statute : “An appeal from a court of record may, upon motion properly taken, be dismissed for any of the following reasons only : ” ( a) failure to file an approved bill of exceptions within the time specified in section 373 “(b) failure to file an approved appeal bond or material defect in such bond ; ” ( c) failure to have notice of appeal served on appellee; or “(d) non-appearance of the appellant on appeal.” 1956 Code, tit. 8, sec. 380. None of the grounds specified in the above-quoted statute as grounds for the dismissal of the appeal having been alleged in the motion to dismiss, the said motion is hereby denied, and the case ruled to trial upon its merits. And it is so ordered. Motion denied.