RIOTS. 2691

ARTICLE 82.

RIOTS.

1. Owner of property destroyed by riot- ers to be compensated by city or county.

2. Conditions of their liabilities; limita- tions. 3. When indemnity shall not be recovered. 4. Pleadings.

An. Code, sec. 1. 1904, sec. 1. 1888, sec. 1. 1835, ch. 137, sec. 1.

1. If in any county or incorporated town or city of this State, any
church, chapel or convent, any dwelling-house, any house used or designed
by any person or any. body corporate as a place for the transaction of
business or deposit of property, any ship, ship yard or lumber yard, any
barn, stable or other outhouse, or any articles of personal property shall
be injured or destroyed, or if any property therein shall be taken away,
injured or destroyed by any riotous or tumultuous assemblage of people,
the full amount of the damage so done shall be recoverable by the sufferer
or sufferers by suit at law against the county, town or city within whose
jurisdiction such riot or tumult occurred.

As a conservator of the peace, the mayor has authority to call on citizens to aid
in prevention and suppression of riots, and it is legal duty of latter to respond. The
general rule that a municipal corporation is not liable for misfeasance or non-feasance
of its officers in respect to a duty specifically imposed by statute on officer is not
applicable to a suit under this section. Admissibility of evidence. Prayers. Quaere,
whether there can be liability under this section where town's charter does not
create a police force, nor confer any power to call on citizens to suppress riot.
Hagerstown v. Dechert, 32 Md. 381.

Liability under this section is predicated on a tumultuous assembly too strong to
be resisted without aid of city authorities. What is necessary to be proved to recover
under this section? Damages. Baltimore v. Poultney, 25 Md. 125.

This article is constitutional and valid. Hagerstown v. Sehner, 37 Md. 189.

An. Code, sec. 2. 1904, sec. 2. 1888, sec. 2. 1835, ch. 137, sec. 1. 1867, ch. 282.

2. No such liability shall be incurred by any county, incorporated
town or city, unless the authorities thereof shall have had good reason to
believe that such riot or tumultuous assemblage was about to take place, or
having taken place, shall have had notice of the same in time to prevent
said injury or destruction, either by its own police or with the aid of the
citizens of such county, town or city, it being the intention of this article
that no such liability shall devolve on such county, town or city, unless the
authorities having notice have also the ability of themselves, or with their
own citizens, to prevent said injury; and all causes of action under section