J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                     1451

May 6, 1966.

Honorable Marvin Mandel
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I have today vetoed House Bill 424 and, in accordance with the
provisions of Article 2, Section 17 of the Maryland Constitution,
I am returning the same to you along with my message concerning
this action.

On April 18 of this year, I received a letter from the Attorney
General, a copy of which is attached and to be considered a part of
this message, in which he recommended that this measure be vetoed.
It was my feeling that because of the language of the Attorney
General's letter, the bill should not be signed into law.

With kindest regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

(s) J. MILLARD TAWES,

Governor.
Letter from State Law Department on H. B. 424

April 18, 1966.

Honorable J. Millard Tawes
Governor of Maryland
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Re: House Bill 424
Dear Governor Tawes:

Under the provisions of the above-captioned bill the Orphans'
Court for Harford County would be abolished in 1970 (at the end of
the term of the judges elected in the general election of 1966) and
the jurisdiction of the Orphans' Court for Harford County would
thereafter be exercised by one of the circuit court judges.

Standing alone, this provision would be unconstitutional inas-
much as orphans' courts are specifically provided for in Section 40 of
Article IV of the Constitution. However, anticipating this objec-
tion, Section 3 of House Bill 424 specifically provides that it shall
take effect contingent upon and contemporaneous with House Bill
14, which proposed an enabling constitutional amendment to per-
mit the transfer of orphans' court jurisdiction to the circuit court
and to abolish the orphans' court in any county. House Bill 14 was
not passed by the legislature and, therefore, by its own terms
House Bill 424 will not be able to go into effect. In order to avoid
any possibility that the bill might be printed in the Code and pos-