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Roll call.
(Whereupon, the roll was called.)
THE PRESIDENT: Has every delegate
answered roll call?
The Clerk will record the roll call.
Prior to the luncheon recess, we were
about to consider amendments to section
1.16. Delegate James, I called for your
amendment among the group of those with
more than fifteen sponsors. I find, however,
that there is another amendment with re-
spect to the same section and although it
has only one sponsor it ought to be con-
sidered first.
Delegate Della, do you desire to offer
your amendment B?
DELEGATE DELLA: I do.
THE PRESIDENT: Pages, please dis-
tribute amendment B, section 1.16.
Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Mr. President,
I rise on a point of personal privilege. I
would like to ask the delegates to join me
in welcoming to the Convention today my
wife Patsy and my two sons, David age 6,
and Michael age 4 and a half.
I recognize them at this time because for
the past several weeks it has been entirely
unclear to them whether I was still capable
of recognizing them. They are in the bal-
cony behind the rostrum to the right.
(Applause).
THE PRESIDENT: This will be Amend-
ment No. 3. The Clerk will read the
amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 3
to Committee Recommendations R&P-1 and
R&P-2 as amended by Report No. S&D-9
by Delegate Della:
On page 4, section 1.16, Eminent Domain,
in lines 32 and 33 strike out the words
"or damaged".
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
submitted by Delegate Della.
Is there a second?
(The motion was duly seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment
having been seconded, the Chair recognizes
Delegate Della to speak to it.
DELEGATE DELLA: Mr. President
and fellow delegates, unfortunately I was
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not here the other day when this particu-
lar section of the constitution was adopted.
In offering the amendment to strike from
section 1.16 on line 32 the word "damaged",
Mr. President, I have heard many reasons
why it should be in there. I have heard
that airports have been constructed and
planes have been flying over homes and
therefore that property has been damaged.
There have been other reasons for some
of the delegates to have voted for it. In
my way of thinking, you are opening Pan-
dora's Box of all kind of litigation and
Lord knows how much it will cost the State
of Maryland and the other political sub-
divisions.
That is the reason why, Mr. President,
this amendment has been offered. I think
the subject matter needs a lot of study. I
think it needs a study to tell us how much
in dollars and cents it would cost the State
of Maryland.
With all the reasons I have heard I can
estimate that the cost could range from
fifty million to one hundred million dollars
in damages. Now, whether that is true or
not, I do not know and I do not think any
delegate in this chamber can actually state
exactly how much it would cost the State
of Maryland or any of the political sub-
divisions.
I do know this, that some of the public
utilities are also involved in this particular
section of the constitution. They themselves
would be involved and certainly, therefore,
the consumer. The public utility would have
to be paying or footing the bill and what
that cost will be, Heaven knows. I think
a proper study should be made before we
ever adopt any section like this in the con-
stitution, and I hope that this amendment
is adopted.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: I rise to oppose
the amendment. We discussed this thing
pretty carefully before. I believe it is de-
sirable perhaps just to call your attention
basically to what this Committee did be-
cause I am not quite sure that some people
may not feel that we have gone off half
cocked. We have not.
First of all, we received ten proposals
that dealt with eminent domain. They cov-
ered a wide range from a specific spelling
out of procedure that was obviously statu-
tory, to two or three which included this
business of damages other than just from
a taking.
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