612

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

Preamble.

other property stored, on the seventh day of January

in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, in

State Tobacco Warehouses, numbers one and two,

claim that the State of Maryland is to them answerable

for loss and damage to them, because of the destruc-

tion or injury to their property, occurring by reason

of a fire in said State Tobacco Warehouses, on the

said last mentioned day; and,

WHEREAS, it is proper that the liability of this

mbl

State, to the said alleged owners, should be duly as-

certained in a court of law and the damages, if any,

are payable, be duly ascertained by the forms of in-

quiry usual in courts of justice; therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of

Maryland, That any person or persons, or corpora-

Right to prose-
cute claim.

tion, having or supposing himself, or itself to have

any claim against the State of Maryland, for or

because of any tobacco or other property burned or

damaged in or by the fire, occurring on the seventh

day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-five,

whereby the State Tobacco Warehouses, numbers

one and two, were wholly or in part burned, shall

have a right to prosecute his, her or its claim against

the State of Maryland, by instituting a suit or suits

against the said State as aforesaid in the Circuit

Court for Anne Arundel county; the summons

in which suit or suits shall be served upon the

Comptroller of this State; and the State's Attorney

for Anne Arundel county, and the Attorney General

of the State shall plead thereto, anil the jury or court

with the consent of the parties to the said suit or

Try the Issue.

suits shall try the issue or issues in said respective

cases, and if they find for the plaintiff or plaintiffs,

in any of the said respective cases, may in such case

or cases, where it or they shall so find, assess such

damages as it or they may think just; and from any

judgment of said court, in any of the said cases,

either party may appeal to the Court of Appeals,

and upon such appeal being prayed, in any one of

said cases, the records of the said case shall be forth-

with transmitted to the Court of Appeals if then in

session, or to the next term thereof, if the said court

is not then in session, and the said case, so trans-