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like to also extend our usual warm wel-
come to thirty-nine students from the Spar-
row's Point Senior High School who are
accompanied by their teacher, Mr. James
Walters.
(Applause.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Dukes to speak in opposi-
tion to the amendment.
DELEGATE DUKES: Those of you who
are or have been around children know
that occasionally if you put a small child
in a dark room, he becomes very frightened.
That principle is essentially why the Mary-
land legislature will be a long time doing
anything about the doctrine of sovereign
immunity. Every time we go before the
legislature, the attorney generals will start
crying like rabbits followed by a hound.
I suggest to you that the Maryland legis-
lature has not done anything of any sub-
stance in this area. You have heard about
the insurance. Judge Henderson tells you
that the insurance has been taken care of.
That is the voice of sagacity and the
voice of conservativism.
I would like you to hear about a ten-
year old girl. She is at school. The teacher
pushes the child and she falls on the icy
steps and hurts her back. The mother at-
tempts to sue the Prince George's School
Board which says, "We do not carry in-
surance. Our counsel advises us if we do
not carry insurance, we are not liable."
That is the way the legislature set it up.
Insurance companies were not paying the
claims. They passed that law for one rea-
son, to make insurance companies pay
claims when they have collected premiums.
If your child is knocked over by a state
vehicle, you pay for it.
There is a direct relationship between
the people and the government. The pur-
pose of the constitution is to set forth cer-
tain obligations of the government and
certain rights of the people.
If you enter into a contract with some-
one, you would have a hard time if one of
the terms of the contract was that you
could not sue the party. He and you have
obligations and you have got rights and he
has. If he breaches his part, you cannot
do anything about it. You just sit there
and wait until maybe the legislature passes
a special bill just for you, and then maybe
on the other hand they will not.
I think you will hear a lot of talk about
this being a bad doctrine because this will
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cost a lot of money. Listen carefully about
the people from whom you hear it. Listen to
see if they are concerned about the City
of Baltimore or whether they are concerned
about the people of the State who are in-
jured by the State and will have to bear
that injury solely by themselves no matter
how much involved the state was.
THE CHAIRMAN: For what purpose
does Delegate Clagett rise?
DELEGATE CLAGETT: For a point of
personal privilege.
THE CHAIRMAN: State the privilege.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Merely to state
that Prince George's does have insurance
companies.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man and ladies and gentlemen of the Com-
mittee, there is such a mountain of misin-
formation being thrown about this morning
that I think it demonstrates our inability
to take care of the problem.
I concur that the doctrine of sovereign
immunity and the office of charitable im-
munity should be put aside. We are taking
a broad swipe at the problem and in so
doing are merely hacking away at it.
As a member of the Board of Commis-
sioners of the Baltimore City Hospitals
and its past Chairman, I just called the
Executive Director and it was determined
that all Baltimore City Hospitals do carry
Workmen's Compensation.
If we did some checking I would suspect
it would take a long time to get the kind
of information together to really exercise
proper judgment on this particular problem.
I submit that what we are doing is going
about a problem without sufficient facts,
and I do not think the constitution is the
place to take care of it.
There has been gradual attrition of the
doctrine of charitable immunity in the
General Assembly, as you may know. Hos-
pitals were required to carry up ,to $100,000
insurance and if they did, they were not
liable beyond that.
I think it is a step in the right direction.
I say we are making a real hit and miss
attempt at the problem. We do not have
the facts, rather we have a fountain of mis-
information.
THE CHAIRMAN : Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition?
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