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Delegate Gilchrist, do you desire to
speak?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: In favor of or in
opposition?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: In favor.
THE PRESIDENT: Before you start
under the informal procedure suggested by
the Chair, and thus far observed by all
delegates with a little prodding from the
Chair, and the suggestion that time is ex-
piring, the sponsor of the amendment and
the Chairman of the Committee are al-
lotted six minutes, all other speakers three
minutes.
Delegate Gilchrist.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Mr. Chair-
man and ladies and gentlemen of the Con-
vention. I was the sponsor of an amend-
ment proposed when this eminent domain
provision came before us earlier. I was the
sponsor of that amendment because I was
afraid of what could happen and I remain
afraid of it.
The attorney general of Maryland, who
may be scary and who may not be schol-
arly as the Chairman of the Committee
has said, has pointed out to this Conven-
tion some of the dangers which are in-
herent in this sort of constitutional writing.
In the course of opinion he says "We
wish to make it clear that we do not op-
pose some extension of the right to com-
pensation by virtue of condemnation pro-
ceedings. We do, however, earnestly ex-
press the hope that this Convention will
not adopt the unqualified phrase 'or dam-
aged' as a part of the constitution. It is
our hope from our concern over the best
interests of the State of Maryland, that
the Convention will qualify the phrase 'or
damaged' in such a way that the General
Assembly can exercise discretion as to
what claims for damages are entitled to
be considered. We have pointed out in this
letter the unhappy experiences of four
States which have similar phrases in their
laws."
I might say that in the memorandum
that has been submitted by the proponents
of this provision, the proponents them-
selves admit that the legislature can
broaden but cannot contract the liability
of a state. The problem is not with the
broadening, the problem is with the con-
traction of sweeping words such as "are
damaged."
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One does not now know and one cannot
know what the courts of Maryland will
determine damage to mean. One will not
know for another ten or fifteen years. As
one of my fellow lawyers pointed out this
morning, I could not recommend to a client
that he settle the condemnation case. I
would have to recommend to him that it be
litigated all the way to the Court of
Appeals.
THE PRESIDENT: You have one half
minute.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: For these
reasons, for the reasons which are inherent
in anything so vague as this, I urge all of
you to support the amendment, take it out,
and leave this in the province of the legis-
lature where it properly belongs.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Churchill
Murray.
DELEGATE E. G. MURRAY: Mr. Chair-
man and fellow delegates, perhaps this is
the first time that I have been able to say
that I have the advantage of not being an
attorney because I can approach this from
a purely common sense standpoint. I do not
mean to imply that being an attorney
would prevent one from doing this, but I
do not have to approach this from a legal-
istic standpoint. The question here is very
simple.
Delegate Della says that no one can tell
us what this will cost. I can tell him how
to determine what this will cost. If he will
add up the loss that the individual people
are suffering in this, he will have the
figure that it will cost the State.
The simplicity of the question is: will
you leave it to those individuals who are
forced into this position, who suffer this
loss, or will the State of Maryland as-
sume it?
I, too, am apprehensive of Pandora's Box.
Nevertheless, we have twenty or more
states who are operating under something
very similar so we do have some examples.
I think it is purely a question of whether
we are going to meet our responsibility
or recede from it.
THE PRESIDENT: Any other delegate
desire to speak in favor of the amendment?
Delegate Henderson.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: I spoke on
this matter once before and I hesitate to
do so again, so I will be very brief.
I thoroughly agree with the proponents
of this amendment that it is wise, most
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