PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, ESQ., GOVERNOR. 745

CHAPTER 532.

AN ACT to repeal section thirty-eight (38) of Article seventy-
seven (77) of the Code of Public General Laws of 1904, title
"Public Education," sub-title "School Houses and Sites,"
and to re-enact the same with amendments.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That section thirty-eight (38) of Article seventy-seven
(77) of the Code of Public General Laws of 1904, title "Public-
Education," sub-title "School Houses and Sites," as the same
is numbered and set forth in the Code of nineteen hundred and
four (1904), be and the same is hereby repealed and re-enacted
so as to read as follows, to wit:

SEC. 38. When the land's shall be required for the site of
a school house, or for enlarging a school house lot, or for play
grounds, or other school purposes, and the Board of County
School Commissioners shall from any cause be unable to con-
tract with the owner or owners thereof upon what it deems to be
a fair valuation thereof, the Board of County School Commis-
sioners may apply for a writ of ad quod damnum to the clerk of
the Circuit Court for the county, who shall forthwith issue
the same and the sheriff shall execute the said writ and return
an inquisition describing the land and stating the amount of
damages to be paid to the owner; and the judge of the Circuit
Court for the county may, at any time after the return of the
inquisition, in term or during recess, hear a motion to confirm
such inquisition, on such notice to the parties as he may direct,
and confirm or quash the same; and if he quashes the inquisi-
tion, he shall order a new one forthwith to be taken; but no
lot so taken or enlarged shall exceed, in the whole, five acres,
including the land occupied by the school building; provided,
that the repeal and re-enactment of this section shall in no wise
affect any proceedings begun and pending at the date of its
passage, but any such proceedings shall be controlled by the law
as it existed at the time of its institution thereof.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take
effect from the date of its passage.

Approved April 11, 1912.

CHAPTER 533.

AN ACT to add an additional section to Article 22 of the Code
of Public Local Laws of Maryland, title "Washington
County," sub-title "County Commissioners," to be known as