BALTIMORE CITY. 899

A municipality may be estopped by the acts of its officers, etc., from asserting
the invalidity of a grant of franchise.

Hagerstown v. Hagerstown Rwy., 123 Md. 183.

A municipal corporation may set up a plea of ultra vires to enter into a given
contract, or do a given act, even though the other party to the contract has ex-
pended money on the faith of said contract.

Hagerstown v. Hagerstown Rwy., 123 Md. 183. Minor Privilege Cases, 131 Md.
600.

1908, ch. 151.

37A. Anything in the preceding sections of this Charter to the con-
trary notwithstanding, where ordinances now stand referred, or shall
hereafter stand referred, to the Board of Estimates of the Mayor and
City Council of Baltimore, in the manner provided for in the preceding
section of this Charter, granting franchises or rights in the water front,
wharf property, land under the water, public landings, wharves or docks,
of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, or in any portion or portions
thereof, the said Board shall be empowered to fix the compensation for
the franchise or right in their discretion at such sum as they shall deem
reasonable and adequate, and in addition to the power of fixing said com-
pensation as aforesaid, and of prescribing the terms and conditions of
the grant in the manner provided for in the preceding section of this arti-
cle, shall be empowered, where there are two or more applicants for the
franchise or right who are prepared to pay said compensation, fixed as
aforesaid, to grant said franchise or right to either one of said applicants,
to the exclusion of the other, or of the rest of said applicants, as it may
deem best for the interests of the City of Baltimore; and it is also the
purpose of this section that where there are one or more of such applica-
tions for the franchise or right in space, included in, but less in dimen-
sions than the space embraced in another or other of such applications,
the said board shall, in addition to the power of fixing said compensa-
tion as aforesaid, and of prescribing the terms and conditions of the grant
as aforesaid, be also empowered to determine, in its discretion, whether
the grant shall be made to the applicant, or to one of the applicants, apply-
ing at said compensation fixed as aforesaid for the franchise or right in
the greater space, or to the applicant or one of the applicants, applying
at said compensation, fixed as aforesaid, for the franchise or right in the
lesser space accordingly, as the said Board may deem best for the inter-
ests of the people of Baltimore. No grant of the franchise or right in
any of the public property mentioned in this section of this Charter, or
in any portion or portions thereof, shall be made by the City Council,
except for the compensation, and upon the terms and conditions, and to
the grantee or grantees approved by a vote or resolution of the said Board,
entered on the minutes or records of the said Board, and attached to the
ordinance granting the franchise or right to the grantee or grantees,
approved by the said Board, with the signatures of a majority of the said
Board signed to the same.