THOMAS SWANN, ESQRE, GOVERNOR. 535

CHAPTER 302. AN ACT to provide for refunding money paid into the State Treasury.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That if any person or corporation in this State shall have heretofore paid or shall hereafter pay by mistake whether of law or fact to any law- ful Collector of State Taxes any larger sum than was properly payable, and such taxes shall not have been paid by such Collector into the Treasury of the State, such person or corporation may file a petition in the Circuit Court of the county in which such person resides or in which such corpo- ration has its principal place of business or in Bal- timore City Court, if such person has his residence or such corporation its principal place of business in the city of Baltimore, stating in the said peti- tion to whom said taxes were paid and when and	State taxes.
the amount thereof, and on what account and for what year the taxes were so paid, and all the facts necessary to enable the Court to determine the question involved ; and thereupon the said Court shall lay a rule requiring the tax Collector to whom said taxes were paid to answer the petition by a day named, which rule shall be served on such Collector ; and the States' Attorney for the county or city of Baltimore in which the said peti- tion shall be filed shall appear to said proceedings on behalf of the said Collector without charge, and if the Court after a hearing of the matter of said petition in such manner and according to such regulations for ascertaining the facts of the case, as it shall by its rules prescribe, shall be of opinion that the taxes alleged to have been paid by mis- take were not legally demandable of said peti-	When paid.
tioner and were paid by mistake, then it shall so declare and adjudge that the amount found to have been overpaid shall be returned to the petitioner by the said Collector deducting therefrom however any arrears of State taxes which may be shown to be due by said petitioner for any other years or on any other account ; and such judgment may be enforced by attachment or execution against the said Collector, and his official bond shall also be	Amount over- paid.