842 ARTICLE 23

ment of penalties imposed by Section 188 of Article 81 for failure to file
reports with the State Tax Commission.

(h) The State Tax Commission shall keep a public index of the names
and addresses of the resident agents and mailing addresses of all such
foreign corporations and of the locations of their principal offices in this
State in cases in which such locations have been certified to it.

(i) The State Tax Commission shall account quarterly to the Comp-
troller for the fees collected by it under this Section and shall pay the same
forthwith to the State Treasurer for the use of the State.¹
The following decided prior to ch. 504, 1937:

A foreign corporation which is trustee of an estate mainly located in the District
of Columbia, where such trust has its inception and is principally administered, is
not doing business in Maryland, and hence this section does not apply, when it disposes
of part of the trust property here. Cases reviewed. Baden v. Washington Loan & T.
Co., 133 Md. 604.

Certificate held to be in substantial compliance with this section and admissible
in evidence without the introduction of the papers filed with the secretary of state
from which certificate is made; fact that the certificate was dated after the filing
of a plea setting up a failure to comply with this section, held immaterial. Strasbaugh
v. Sanitary Can Co., 127 Md. 637.

The fact that a national bank has not complied with this and the following section
does not prevent it from maintaining a suit in Maryland. Hietson v. Natl. City Bank
of Chicago, 132 Md. 393.

Secs. 137 and 138 of the Code of 1904 referred to in construing sec. 178—see notes
thereto. Cumberland Gaslight Co. v. W. Va. Gas Co., 188 Fed. 585.

Cited but not construed in Smith Premier Co. v. Westcott, 112 Md. 150; Queen
City Glass Co. v. Clay Pot Co., 97 Md. 437.

See notes to secs. 119.

1937, ch. 504, sec. 121.

121. (a) Failure on the part of any foreign corporation, required by
Section 120 of this Article to qualify to do intrastate business in this
State or to register to do interstate and foreign business in this State, to
comply with any of the requirements of said Section shall not affect the
validity of any contract made with it or the enforceability of any such
contract.

(b) Every officer of any such foreign corporation which does intrastate
business or interstate or foreign business in this State without qualifying
to do such intrastate business or registering to do such interstate or for-
eign business, as the case may be, and every agent of any such foreign cor-
poration who transacts intrastate business or interstate or foreign business
for such foreign corporation in this State shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and liable to a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars.

(c) No suit shall be maintained in any court of this State by any such
foreign corporation or by anyone claiming under such foreign corporation
if such foreign corporation is doing or has done intrastate or interstate
or foreign business in this State without having complied with the require-
ments of Section 120 of this Article, until

(1) such foreign corporation or the person claiming under it shall have
proved to the satisfaction of the court

(A) that such foreign corporation, or a foreign corporation successor
thereto, has complied with the requirements of Section 120 of this Arti-
cle, or

(B) that neither such foreign corporation nor any foreign corporation
successor thereto is continuing to do intrastate or interstate or foreign busi-
ness in this State, and

¹ See footnote to sec. 23.