LUNATICS AND INSANE. 2111

county commissioners shall notify the State comptroller that it is claimed
by them that such patient is not a proper charge against their county, and
shall claim that the said patient is a proper charge against some other
county, it shall be the duty of the county commissioners of each of said
counties to file such proofs as they may have with the State comptroller
within thirty days from the time of such notification and thereupon it shall
be the duty of the State comptroller to investigate the question of the resi-
dence of such patient and to determine of what county said patient is a
proper charge, and shall thereupon notify each of said counties of such
determination, and shall notify the superintendent of the State hospital
for the insane, and the counties aforesaid shall thereafter treat and re-
gard such patient as of the county according to the determination of the
State comptroller, and if the State comptroller shall find that such patient
is not a proper charge against any county of the State, such patient shall
thereafter be regarded as a proper charge against the State at large. The
amount incurred by any county of this State for treatment and mainte-
nance for any insane person in the State hospitals for the insane shall be
a charge against the estate of such person; provided, that the insane person
has no heirs within the United States dependent upon the said estate for
support; and provided further, that no real property shall be sold for
debt incurred for the treatment and maintenance by any county during
the life of the insane person; and further provided that no personal prop-
erty shall be sold for said debt within five years from the date of the send-
ing of such insane person to a State hospital for the insane, unless by order
of the proper court, where such property is liable to deteriorate in value
during the time above specified, and when sold as above the Circuit Court
for the county shall order the proceeds thereof to be safely invested for
the benefit of such insane person.

This section referred to in dealing with state's liability under act of 1914, ch. 778,
for support of dependent insane at Sylvan Retreat (owned and operated by Allegany
county). Allegany County v. Lunacy Commission, 127 Md. 165.

See notes to sec. 6.

1920, ch. 206.

48. The Board of Mental Hygiene shall have power and authority to
make arrangements with similar bodies in other States, whereby insane,
lunatic or feeble-minded persons who are being cared for at public expense
in any asylum or institution for the care of the insane in this State
(other than persons who shall have been transferred thereto from penal
institutions, and the terms of whose sentences to such penal institutions
shall not have expired), and who are citizens or residents of such other
States, may be transferred at the expense of this State to similar institu-
tions in such other States, and whereby insane, lunatic or feeble-minded
persons who are being cared for at public expense in such asylums or insti-
tutions of other States (other than persons who shall have been transferred
from penal institutions, and the terms of whose sentences to such penal
institutions shall not have expired) and who are citizens or residents of
this State, may be transferred at the expense of such other States to similar
institutions in this State, provided that nothing in this section contained