HERBERT R. O'CONOR, GOVERNOR. 615

ment of any license, excise, privilege, premium, occupation or
other fee or tax to any state, territory or political subdivision
thereof (including the District of Columbia), unless prior to
. such payment, the statute, ordinance, or other law imposing
such fee or tax shall have been expressly held invalid by the
state court having final appellate jurisdiction in the premises,
or by the Supreme Court of the United States.

(b) No action or Court proceeding, and no suit at law or in
equity, shall be brought against any officer, director or trustee
of any insurer, including any domestic mutual insurance com-
panies, attorneys-in-fact for reciprocal exchanges or inter-
insurers, or Lloyds Associations, for the purpose of enforcing
any liability based upon any payment by the said insurer, or
upon a determination not to contest payment of any license,
excise, privilege, premium, occupation, or other fee or tax to
any state, territory or political subdivision thereof (including
the District of Columbia), occurring prior to the date of the
passage of this Act, unless such action be instituted within six
months after the date on which this Act becomes effective.
Nothing in this Act is to be construed as giving rise to any such
cause of action which, prior to the passage of this Act, did not
exist.

(c) Nothing contained herein shall be construed as directly
or indirectly limiting, minimizing or interpreting the rights
and powers of insurers and their officers, directors and trustees,
heretofore existing.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act is hereby
declared to be an emergency law and necessary for the imme-
diate preservation of the public health and safety and having
been passed upon by yea and nay vote, supported by three-
fifths of all the members elected to each of the two Houses of
the General Assembly of Maryland, the same shall take effect
from the date of its passage.

Approved April 5, 1945.

CHAPTER 564.
(House Bill 374)

AN ACT to add a new section to Article 48A of the Annotated
Code of Maryland (1939 Edition),. title "Insurance", sub-title
"Insurance Department", said new section to be known
as Section 11, and to follow immediately after Section 10
of said Article, giving any person, co-partnership, association
or corporation a right of appeal from any adverse decision