34 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 29

CHAPTER 29.
(Senate Bill 28)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Section 314
of Article 93 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1943 Sup-
plement), title "Testamentary Law", sub-title "Widows",
clarifying the provision as to the proportion of an estate to
be received by a surviving spouse under certain conditions.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Section 314 of Article 93 of the Annotated Code of
Maryland (1943 Supplement), title "Testamentary Law", sub-
title "Widows", be and it is hereby repealed and re-enacted,
with amendments, to read as follows:

314. A surviving husband or widow shall be barred of his
or her right of dower in land or share in land or share in the
personal estate by any such devise or bequest, unless within
thirty (30) days after the expiration of the notice to creditors
in the wife's or husband's estate, as the case may be, he or she
shall deliver or transmit to the Court or Register of Wills
where administration has been granted a written renunciation
in substantially the following form or to the following effect:

I, A. B., widow or widower, as the case may be, of..........

............... late of ................. deceased, do hereby

renounce and quit all claim to any bequest or devise made to
me by the last will and testament of my wife or husband, ex-
hibited and proved according to law; and I elect to take in
lieu thereof my dower in lands and my legal share of the per-
sonal estate of my said wife or husband, or my legal share of
both the real and personal estate of my said wife or husband.
If the widow or widower be insane at the time of election, the
guardian (committee or trustee) or the Court shall have
power to make the election for said widow or widower.

If the election be of dower in lands and the legal share of the
personal estate, the said surviving husband or widow shall
take dower in lands and one-third of the surplus personal
estate (if the deceased spouse shall be survived by descendants),
and dower in lands and one-half of the surplus personal estate
(if the deceased spouse shall not be survived by descendants),
and no more. If the election be of the legal share of both real
and personal estate, the surviving husband or wife shall take
one-third of the lands as an heir and one-third of the surplus
personal estate (if the deceased spouse shall be survived by de-
scendants) ; and one-half the lands as an heir, and one-half the
surplus personal estate (if the deceased spouse shall not be
survived by descendants, but shall be survived by a father or
mother) ; and two thousand dollars or its equivalent in prop-