HARRY W. NICE, GOVERNOR. 263
CHAPTER 142.

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Section 23
of Article 27 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1924 Edi-
tion), title "Crimes and Punishments, " sub-title "Bigamy, "
defining the crime of bigamy.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Section 23 of Article 27 of the Annotated Code of
Maryland (1924 Edition), title "Crimes and Punishments, "
sub-title "Bigamy, " be and the same is hereby repealed and
re-enacted, with amendments, so as to read as follows:

Section 23. Whosoever being married and not having
obtained an annulment or a divorce a vinculo matrimonii
of said marriage, the first husband or wife (as the case may
be) being alive, shall marry any person, shall undergo a con-
finement in the penitentiary for a period not less than eighteen
months nor more than nine years; provided, that nothing
herein contained shall extend to any person whose husband
or wife shall be continuously remaining beyond the seas seven
years together, or shall be absent himself or herself seven
years together, in any part within the United States or else-
where, the one of them not knowing the other to be living at
that time; and if such offender be a man, his first wife shall,
on his conviction, be forthwith endowed of one-third part of
his real estate, which she shall hold as tenant in dower, the
assignment of which shall be made as prescribed by law in
other cases of dower, and she shall have the like remedy for
the recovery thereof; and she shall also, on his conviction, be
forthwith entitled to one-third part of his personal estate, in
the same manner as if such husband had died intestate, and
she had survived him, which third part shall be divided and
allotted to her in the same manner as distribution is made of
the personal estate of intestates; and if the said offender be
a man, he shall, on conviction, forfeit his claim or title as
tenant by the courtesy, and also all his claim or title to any
estate, real personal or mixed, which he may have in right of
his first wife; and if the said offender be a woman, she shall, on
conviction, forfeit her claim to dower of the estate of her first
husband, and also her distributive share of his personal estate,
which she would be entitled to if he had died intestate, and
she had survived him.

Approved May 18, 1937.