EMERSON C. HARRINGTON, GOVERNOR. 1297

CHAPTER 619.

AN ACT to add an additional section to Article 21 of Bagby's
Code of Public Civil Laws of Maryland, title "Conveyance
ing, " to be known as Section 97, relating to the payment of
the cost of United States Internal Revenue Stamps required
on deeds and other conveyances, except mortgages.

WHEREAS, It is the long established custom in Maryland
(in the absence of a special agreement to the contrary) that in
conveyances of real or leasehold estate (except in mortgage
transactions) the purchaser should pay the expenses of the
examination of title, drawing legal papers, acknowledgments
and recording, etc.; and whereas under the United States War
Revenue Act of 1898, it was likewise the custom that the cost
of the revenue stamps required by said statute should be paid
by the purchaser; and whereas there is an uncertainty under
the United States Emergency Revenue Act of 1914 as to
whether or not the cost of the revenue stamps required in real
estate transactions should be paid by the vendor or by the pur-
chaser, and the proper officials of the United States have thus
far declined to decide the question as to whether the vendor or
purchaser should pay for such stamps; and whereas it is de-
sirable that a uniform practice should be established by law
in Maryland in regard to this matter until such time as the
liability for the cost of such stamps is established by the
authority of the United States, and in view of the uncertainty
as to whether the grantor or grantee is liable for the cost of
such stamps, it is proper that the cost thereof should be equally
shared between the parties, in the absence of any agreement
between them to the contrary.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That a new section be and hereby is added to Article 21
of Bagby's Code of Public Civil Laws of Maryland, title '' Con-
veyancing, " to be known as Section 97.

97. In every agreement, written or verbal, for the sale or
other disposition of real or leasehold property, it shall be pre-
sumed (in the absence of a provision to the contrary) that the
parties to such agreement intended that the cost of any internal
revenue stamps required under any tax law of the United States
of America should be equally shared between the grantor and
grantee. This section shall only apply until such time as the
proper officers of the United States of America shall determine
whether the grantor or the grantee is liable for the cost of such