EMERSON C. HARRINGTON, GOVERNOR. 855

CHAPTER 391.

AN ACT to authorize and direct the State Roads Commission
to complete the gap in the old Baltimore and Washington
Turnpike Road in the village of Elkridge, at the point where
it formerly passed over the tracks of the Washington Branch
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

(Vetoed.)

CHAPTER 392.

AN ACT to add a new section to Article 75 of the Code of
Public General Laws of Maryland, title "Pleadings, Prac-
tice and Process at Law," sub-title "Pleadings," to follow
immediately after Section 3 of said Article and be desig-
nated Section 3-A; thereby providing one form of action for
all suits ex Contractu.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That a
new section be, and the same is hereby added to Article 75 of
of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland, title "Plead-
ings, Practice and Process at Law," sub-title "Pleadings," said
new section to follow immediately after Section 3 of said arti-
cle, and to be designated as Section 3-A, and to read as follows:

3-A. In all actions ex Contractu there shall be no distinc-
tion in the pleadings by reason of the presence or absence of a
seal upon any instrument or writing involved in the case, ex-
cept in so far as the presence or absence of a seal may affect
the substantive rights of the parties (such as necessity for a
valuable consideration, period of limitation, etc.), as distinct
from matters of procedure; and counts for recovery upon sealed
instruments may be joined with counts for recovery upon un-
sealed contracts, express or implied; and there shall be but one
form of action for recovery upon any cause of action arising
ex Contractu or quasi ex Contractu, namely, the action of as-
sumpsit, in which it shall be sufficient for the plaintiff to state
briefly in his declaration the facts essential to recovery (but
nothing hereunder shall be construed as abolishing the use of
the common counts). Provided, that no period of limitations
now prescribed by law with respect to any cause of action now
existing or hereafter arising shall be altered by this section.
And in any such suit at law it shall be sufficient for the defend-
ant to file a general issue plea that the defendant never was