92 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.

Sec. 33. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws in any
of the following enumerated cases, viz: For extending the time for the
collection of taxes, granting divorces, changing the name of any person,
providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons
laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians
or trustees, giving effect to informal or invalid deeds or wills, refunding
money paid into the State Treasury, or releasing persons from their debts
or obligations to the State, unless recommended by the Governor or officers
of the Treasury Department... And the General Assembly shall pass no
special law for any case for which provision has been made by an existing
general law. The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of
this Constitution, shall pass general Jaws providing for the cases enumerated
in this section which are not already adequately provided for, and for all
other cases where a General Law can be made applicable.

Special Laws—Cases Covered by General Law.

Ads Condemned.

Act 1900, ch. 579, assessing shares of stock in corporations in Allegany county
to these corporations and exempting the share-holders from taxation thereon. The
term " general " contrasted with " special " and " local." While the act of 1900
professed to apply only to Allegany county,' it operated in every county in the
state in which any stockholder of an Allegany county corporation resided. Balti-
more v. Allegany County, 99 Md. 12.

Act 1908, ch. 398, directing a railroad company to maintain safety gates and
flagmen at two designated crossings, since art. 23, sec. 240, of the Code contains
general provisions prescribing the condition under which railroad companies may
be required to protect crossings by flagmen, gates, etc. A special law is one that
relates to particular persons or things of a class as distinguished from a general
law which applies to all persons or things of a class. Cases reviewed. Prince
George's County v. B. & O. R. R. Co., 113 Md. 179.

In view of the P. S. C. law, so much of sec. 87 of the charter of Crisfield as
attempts to invest it with the power to regulate telephone rates. Intent of the
legislature in adopting the P. S. C. law. Distinction between special and public
local acts. Crisfield v. C. & P. Tel. Co., 131 Md. 444.

Act 1910, ch. 341, regulating rates of a water company. Westminster v. Consoli-
dated Public Utilities Co., 132 Md. 374.

Act 1904, ch. 263, exempting a particular wharf owned by a church from munic-
ipal taxation—see art. 81, sec. 4. Object of this section. Baltimore v. Stare
Church, 106 Md. 280.

Act 1874, ch. 453, a local option law covering certain districts of certain counties.
Fell v. State, 42 Md. 116 (dissenting opinion).

Acts upheld.

Act 1894, ch. 620, providing for the erection of a public school building in Annapo-
lis, for the issue of bonds and for the apportionment of the cost of said building
between the county and city; while the existing general law provided that the
school commissioners of Anne Arundel county should have control and supervision
of the schools in said county with power to build, etc., houses, it did not authorize
the borrowing of money for such purposes nor for an apportionment of the cost of
the building. Revell v. Annapolis, 81 Md. 13.

Sec. 19 of act 1870, ch. 260, incorporating the town of Laurel provided that certain
labor or money levied or taxed upon the owners of property or residents within
said town should be turned over to the commissioners of Laurel and be spent by
them for the improvement of roads, etc.; the law was a local and not a special one.
Prince George's County v. Commissioners of Laurel, 51 Md. 460.

Act of 1868, ch. 411, relating to the public roads of Baltimore county; a local and
not a special law. State v. Baltimore County, 29 Md. 519.

Act 1906, ch. 566, modifying the park tax payable by the United Railways Com-
pany of Baltimore upon certain gross receipts, authorizing the board of estimates
to grant a certain franchise to said company in perpetuity, and modifying the powers
of the board of estimates, held not to violate this section or art. 15 of the Declara-