906

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

to the defendant, shall be served on each of the
defendants, or if they cannot be found, upon
the person or persons in actual possession of the
land described in the declaration, and if there
be no person in possession of the premises, or if
the same be unimproved, vacant property, a
copy of the declaration and summons shall be
conspicuously posted and set up upon the prem-
ises, and notice of the object of the suit and of
the substance of the declaration shall be pub-
lished as the court shall direct, giving notice to
the said defendants to appear to and defend the
said action by a day to be named by the court,
not less than twenty days from the first publica-
tion of said notice ; to this declaration the de-

May appear.

fendant or any other person, with leave of the
court, may appear and plead not guilty to
the action, which plea shall be held a confes-
sion of the possession and ejectment, and shall
only put in issue the title to the premises and
right of possession and the amount of damages
claimed by the plaintiff ; but any defendant may
refuse to appear or file a disclaimer of title to the
land or any part thereof, in which case the
plaintiff shall recover judgment against the de-
fendant so disclaiming or refusing to defend for
the land or so much thereof as shall not be de-
fended, but the costs shall be subject to the dis-

Trial— how
proceeded
with.

cretion of the court, and the trial shall then pro-
ceed against the party making defence under
the rules and practice of the court as the same
existed prfor to the year eighteen hundred and
seventy, except so far as the same are changed
by this article ;, and the plaintiff shall also re-
cover as damages in this action the mesne profits
and damages sustained by him and caused by
the ejectment and detention of the premises up
to the time of the determination of the case.
SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That the following

Additional
section.

additional sections, to be known as fifty-eight A,
fifty-eight B and fifty-eight C, sub-title " Equit-
able Defences," and fifty-eight D, sub-title "Re-
plevins," be added to article seventy-five of the
Code of Public General Laws, title "Pleading,
Practice and Process."
58A. It shall be lawful for the defendant in any
action at law (including plaintiff in replevin