84 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.
Sec. 28. No bill shall become a law unless it be passed in each House by
a majority of the whole number of members elected, and on its final passage
the yeas and nays be recorded; nor shall any resolution requiring the action
of both Houses be passed except "in the same manner.
This section is mandatory. The yeas and nays should be entered on the journals;
query as to whether they must be. Act of 1922, ch. 383, providing for a Washing-
ton county school bond issue, held not to have been validly passed by the legisla-
ture. Authorities reviewed. Washington County v. Baker, 141 Md. 627.
The concluding words of an act held not to be nugatory as an attempt to re-enact
a prior act in violation of this section; it is not to be presumed that the legislature
intended to do an unconstitutional thing. Temmick v. Owings, 70 Md. 251.
This section referred to in construing art. 15 of the Declaration of Rights—see
notes thereto. State v. C. &. P. R. R. Co., 40 Md. 53 (dissenting opinion).
Cited but not construed in Dunn v. Brager, 116 Md. 245.
See notes to secs. 27 and 30.
Sec. 29. The style of all laws of this State shall be, " Be it enacted by
the General Assembly of Maryland," and all laws shall be passed by original
bill; and every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one
subject, and that shall be, described in its title; and no law, or section of law,
shall be revived-or amended by reference to its title or section only; nor
shall any law be construed by reason of its title to grant powers or confer
rights which are not expressly contained in the body of the Act; and it
shall be the duty of the General Assembly, in amending any article or section
of the Code of Laws of this State, to enact the same as the said article or
section would read when amended. And whenever the General Assembly
shall enact any Public General Law, not amendatory of any section or
article in the said Code, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to
enact the same, in articles and sections, in the same manner as the Code is
arranged, and to provide for the publication of all additions and alterations
which may be made to the said Code.
Titles held sufficient:
Acts relating to corporations.
Title of act of 1900, ch. 307, changing the name of the Potomac and Severn Elec-
tric Railway Company, granting certain additional powers thereto and confirming
certain franchises thereof, held sufficient. Cases involving an alleged violation of
the portion of this section relative to the title of an act, reviewed and sum-
marized. Jeffers v. Annapolis, 107 Md. 268.
Title of act of 1892, ch. 469, amending the charter of the Writing Telegraph Com-
pany of Baltimore city, held sufficient. Brown v. Md. Telephone Co., 101 Md. 579.
Title of act of 1890, ch. 263, changing the name of the Fidelity and Deposit Com-
pany of Maryland and amending and defining its powers, held sufficient. Gans v.
Carter, 77 Md. 10.
Title of act of 1898, ch. 17, changing the name of the Sheppard Asylum, held
sufficient. Strictly speaking, the preamble is no part of the statute; hence, even if
the preamble should be out of harmony with the body of the act, the title is not
thereby rendered defective. Phinney v. Sheppard Hospital, 89 Md. 635.
Title of act of 1874, ch. 233, which is "An Act to Establish The Maryland House
of Correction," held sufficient, since this section is liberally construed. The title
need not set out the details contained in the sections of the act. Moreover, the
sections of the act of 1874 were adopted and confirmed by the act adopting the Code
of 1888. Bond v. State, 78 Md. 525.
Clauses in act of 1880, chs. 431 and 432, making appropriations to the Maryland
Agricultural College, held not to be so foreign to the subject of the acts as to vio-
late the provision of this section dealing with the title of an act. Maryland Agri-
cultural College v. Keating, 58 Md. 583.
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