CHARTERED COUNTIES OF MAEYLAND. 921

ARTICLE 25A.

CHARTERED COUNTIES OF MARYLAND.

1. County may adopt charter under Art. XI-A of Constitution; powers, suits, prosecutions.

2-3. Powers. 4. Effect of unconstitutional provision.

General Provisions.

An. Code, sec. 1. 1918, ch. 456, sec. 1.

1. The inhabitants of any county adopting a charter or form of govern-
ment under the provisions of Article XIA of the Constitution of the State
by virtue of such adoption shall have perpetual succession; may sue and
be sued; may purchase or otherwise acquire and hold real, personal and
mixed property, either absolutely or in trust for any public purpose; may
dispose of the same subject to the limitations herein provided, if not con-
trary to the terms of any trust; may have, use and alter at pleasure a com-
mon seal; and may pass and adopt all ordinances, resolutions or by-laws
necessary or proper to exercise the powers herein granted.

All property and franchises of every kind belonging to or in the pos-
session of the Board of Commissioners of the County and any of its agen-
cies, shall, immediately upon the adoption of a charter, be vested in the
said County, as a corporation. And no action against the County Com-
missioners of any County adopting the charter shall abate, but shall be
continued in the name of the County with the same effect as if originally
so brought or begun; and that all subsisting liabilities, obligations, con-
tracts, claims and demands at law or in equity, accrued or to accrue, of
said County Commissioners or in its favor, shall without further formality
be and become the liabilities, obligations, contracts, claims and demands
of such Commissioners and County Council of the County adopting a char-
ter under said Article XIA, and that no criminal action, prosecution or
indictment shall be affected by the adoption of a charter as aforesaid, but
shall be prosecuted under the law in force at the time of the commission of
the offense.

Grant of Powers.

An. Code, sec. 2. 1918, ch. 456, sec. 2.

2. Whenever any county among the geographical subdivisions of this
State, as that term is defined in Section 4 of Article XIA of the Constitu-
tion of the State, shall have adopted for itself a charter or form of govern-
ment under the provisions of said Article XIA of the Constitution, it
shall be entitled to exercise the following express powers, said powers