254 CORPORATIONS. [ART. 23

and all deeds, conveyances and transfers of property, in trust for the
benefit of any such church or congregation, and all deeds, conveyances
and transfers made and executed to others by or in the name of such
church or congregation, as a religious corporation, shall be good, valid
and effective to all intents and purposes, as if the agreement, plan or
certificate of incorporation for such church and congregation had been
duly filed in the proper office, for record, within the time prescribed
by the law under which such church or congregation was organized and
incorporated as aforesaid. And if it shall appear from the record book
required to be kept by any such religious corporation wherein it is
required to register its plan, agreement or certificate of incorporation,
or otherwise that any church or congregation heretofore made and
adopted a good and sufficient agreement, plan or certificate of incor-
poration, and, in the clerk's office, where the same should have been
of record, no book for recording such instruments is to be found cover-
ing the time in which said agreement, plan or certificate of incorpora-
tion should have been filed for record, then in such case it shall be
conclusively presumed in all Courts of this State that the said agree-
ment, plan or certificate of incorporation was duly and in due time
filed for record in the said clerk's office, and that the book containing
the record of the same has been lost or destroyed, and such agreement,
plan or certificate of incorporation shall be again filed for record in
said clerk's office, unless it has heretofore already been filed, or if the
original of such plan, agreement or certificate of incorporation cannot
be found, then such record in said clerk's office may be made from the
aforesaid record book of such religious corporation unless said record
has heretofore already been made in said clerk's office from said record
book of such religious corporation. If any church or congregation, or-
ganized or incorporated as a religious corporation since the year 'eight-
een hundred under -any law of this State, hath failed or omitted to file
in the proper clerk's office its agreement, plan or certificate of incor-
poration, within the time prescribed by said law, and if such agree-
ment, plan or certificate of incorporation hath never been since filed for
record nor a record been made in said clerk's office of said agreement,
plan or certificate of incorporation, from said record book of said cor-
poration as aforesaid, such church or congregation shall have all of
the benefits of this section, if such agreement, plan or certificate of in-
corporation shall be duly filed for record in the proper clerk's office,
within one year from April 11, 1912, or a record be made within said
time in said clerk's office of said agreement, plan or certificate of incor-
poration from said record book of said corporation, as aforesaid.

The existence of a corporation upheld under the act of 1910, chapter 756
(p. 83). The certificate of incorporation found in the minute book of the
corporation held to be properly treated as an original, or at least a dupli-
cate original, for the purpose of this section. Even if such certificate was
a copy, if there never was in the county any record or record book such
as is specified in the act of 1910, chapter 756, the filing of such copy is a
sufficient compliance with this section. The act of 1912, chapter 218, re-
ferred to but not construed. Mills v. Zion Chapel, 119 Md. 514.