12                                Laws of Maryland                          [Ch. 7

Supplement), title "Lunatics and Insane", sub-title "Lunatics or
Insane Paupers", amending the law concerning the investigation
of the financial condition of persons committed or admitted to
State mental institutions, with particular respect to the securing
of financial statements by court order, and also amending the
law concerning claims for any balance due for the cost of mainte-
nance of a deceased patient at such institutions.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Sections 5 (a) and 5 (e) of Article 59 of the Annotated Code
of Maryland (1960 Supplement), title "Lunatics and Insane", sub-
title "Lunatics or Insane Paupers", be and they are hereby repealed
and re-enacted with amendments to read as follows:

5.

(a) Rate; investigation of financial condition; requirements as to
payments.—The Department of Mental Hygiene shall fix a rate
to be chargeable to all persons who have been or who are hereafter
committed or admitted to State institutions under the jurisdiction
of the. Department of Mental Hygiene, not to exceed the actual cost
per capita for maintenance of such persons, the actual cost per
capita to be determined annually between September 1 and Decem-
ber 1, by the Commissioner of Mental Hygiene, the State Comp-
troller, and the State Budget Director; except with respect to those
patients who have been or shall remain in such institution for a
period in excess of thirty (30) months, the rate chargeable to the
family of the patient shall thereafter not exceed 25% of the per
capita cost. The Department of Mental Hygiene shall investigate
the financial condition of all such persons and also the financial con-
ditions of their relatives or other persons legally chargeable with
their maintenance and support, in order to determine, in each case,
the ability of any such person, or of his or her relatives or other
persons legally chargeable with his or her maintenance or support,
to make payment, in whole or in part, for the maintenance and sup-
port of such person while an inmate of any such institution. In mak-
ing such investigation, the Department of Mental Hygiene shall
require reports of OR statements to be made to them IT by such rela-
tives or other persons upon such forms as may be prepared by the De-
partment of Mental Hygiene. Upon the refusal or wilful neglect or
failure of any such relative or other person to file the required report
of OR statement, the Department of Mental Hygiene is authorized to
apply to the Circuit Court of the County in which the relative or
person is a resident, or to the Superior Court of Baltimore City if
the relative or person is a resident of the City, for an order of that
court requiring the relative or person to file the report of OR statement
as specified by the Department of Mental Hygiene; and the refusal
or wilful neglect or failure of the relative or person to obey the order
of the court is punishable as contempt of court. The Department of
Mental Hygiene shall make and issue an order specifying therein the
amount of such payments so to be made, and the times when the
same are to be made, and shall have the power to require the rela-
tives of any such person or others legally chargeable with his or
her maintenance and support, to enter into appropriate and binding
agreements with respect to the making of such payments, and from
HER MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT TO PAY THE AMOUNT
SO SPECIFIED TO BE MADE, AND AT THE TIMES SO DE-
TERMINED, AND FURTHER FROM time to time may modify