686 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

current year and thereafter the regular percentage required
under the special pension act.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take
effect from the date of its passage.

Approved April 10th, 1914.

CHAPTER 432.

AN ACT to add a new Section to Article 75 of the Code of Public
General Laws of Maryland, title "Pleadings, Practice and
Process at Law,'' said new Section to be known as Section 173,
and to follow immediately after the Section numbered 172 in
Bagby's Annotated Code of the Public Civil Laws of Mary-
land, 1911; and to provide for and regulate the right of plain-
tiffs and defendants to dismiss their suits and set-offs.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That a new Section be and the same is hereby added to
Article 75 of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland,
title "Pleadings, Practice and Process at Law," said new Sec-
tion to be known as Section 173, and to follow immediately after
the Section numbered 172 in Bagby's Annotated Code of the
Public Civil Laws of Maryland, 1911, and to read as follows:

173. In all trials of actions at law in the Courts of this
State it shall not be necessary to call the plaintiff before the
verdict is rendered; nor shall the plaintiff be entitled to dismiss
his suit or submit to a voluntary judgment of non pros, after
argument upon the facts has begun in cases tried before a jury
or before the Court sitting as a jury; but the plaintiff shall
have the same right to dismiss such case or submit to a voluntary
judgment of non pros, thereon, up to the time when such argu-
ment on the facts has begun, as before the enactment of this
Section.

And in all cases where a defendant has specially pleaded
set-off, the defendant shall similarly be entitled to dismiss his
claim of set-off, or submit to a volntary judgment of non pros,
thereon, to the same extent and up to the same point of time as
the plaintiff shall be entitled to take such action with respect
to his claim.