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State v. Belviso6/1/2004
milarly, in State v. Rowlands, 343 S.C. 454, 456, 539 S.E.2d 717, 718 (Ct. App. 2000), the circuit court and this court exercised jurisdiction over the State's appeal from the magistrate court's dismissal of a DUI charge. This authority provides ample support for the circuit court's ability to hear the State's appeal from the magistrate court's pre-trial rulings dismissing the open container charge and suppressing critical evidence in connection with the charge of driving with an unlawful alcohol concentration.
We further conclude this result is consistent with the intent of the Legislature, especially when our statutory law is considered in its entirety. Section 18-3-10 cannot properly be read in isolation. Chapter 1 of Title 18 of the South Carolina Code of Laws provides general guidelines for appeals in civil and criminal actions. For example, section 18-1-30 provides that "[a]ny party aggrieved may appeal in the cases prescribed in this Title." Section 18-1-130 authorizes appeals from "any intermediate order involving the merits and necessarily affecting the judgment." Chapters 3 and 5 of Title 14 of our code of laws contain further confirmation of the circuit court's power to hear the State's appeal. Section 14-3-330, as held in McKnight, 287 S.C. at 168, 337 S.E.2d at 209, permits an interlocutory appeal when the order "in effect determines the action... or discontinues the action." Section 14-5-340 expressly authorizes the circuit court to "hear appeals from magistrates' courts and municipal courts.... " The foregoing sampling of statutes repudiates the nonsensical view of legislative intent urged by Belviso. Belviso's myopic view of section 18-3-10 would require us to ignore other pertinent statutes and lead to a rule foreclosing any possibility of review of intermediate orders from magistrates' courts and municipal courts. That would be "a result so plainly absurd that it could not possibly have been intended by the Legislature...." Kiriakides v. United Artists Communications, Inc., 312 S.C. 271, 275, 440 S.E.2d 364, 366 (1994). In construing the statutory scheme as a whole, we "escape the absurdity" and give efficacy to the manifest intention of the General Assembly. Id. In doing so, our judicial decisions addressing the "right of appeal" are in accord with legislative intent.
CONCLUSION
The circuit court, inits appellate capacity, has jurisdiction to entertain the State's appeal fromthe magistrate's pre-trial rulings dismissing the open container charge andsuppressing evidence which significantly impairs the prosecution of the unlawfuldriving charge. The decision of thecircuit court is REVERSED and the matteris REMANDEDfor further proceedings.
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