1404 LAWS OF MARYLAND CH. 702
persons applying for or receiving social services, child welfare
services, general assistance, old age assistance, aid to the blind, aid
to families with dependent children, or aid to the permanently and
totally disabled, directly or indirectly derived from the records,
papers, files, investigations or communications of the State, county
or city, or subdivisions or agencies thereof, or acquired in the course
of the performance of official duties.
7. [County] Local attorneys to represent local [welfare] depart-
ments.
(a) It shall be the duty of the attorney to, or an attorney to
be designated by, the local governing authority in each county of the
State and in Baltimore City, as defined in Section 4 of this article,
to institute and defend all civil cases in which its local [welfare]
department is an interested party. All such suits shall be instituted
in the name of the local [welfare] department.
(b) Whenever such attorneys institute suit for the recovery,
from the estate of a recipient of any type of public assistance, of the
amount paid to such recipient during his lifetime, or whenever such
attorneys institute suit for the recovery, from a recipient of any
type of public assistance, of the amount paid to such recipient prior
to his coming into possession of any property or income in excess
of the amount stated in his application for assistance and in excess
of his need, such attorneys may be allowed such fees for their services
as may be fixed by the court, and the amount of such fees allowed
by the court, shall be deducted from the gross amount of the re-
covery in each case, and the net amount of the recovery turned
over to the local [welfare] department, to be divided between the
State, the county or Baltimore City as the case may be, and the
federal government in proportion to the amount paid by each re-
spectively.
(c) For such other legal services as are required of such at-
torneys on behalf of local [welfare] departments and not provided
for otherwise, they shall be paid such fees as may be established,
from time to time, by the State Department, the cost thereof to
be borne from regular administrative funds.
[8.
No member of the Board of Public Welfare nor any of the em-
ployees of the State Department of Public Welfare shall be directly
or indirectly interested in any contract for building, repairing or
furnishing in whole or in part, or be financially interested in any
contract with any institution coming under the supervision of this
Department, nor shall any officer, secretary or employee of any such
institution be eligible to appointment on the Board of Public Wel-
fare.]
[9. Powers as to agencies, etc.
(a) In general.—To enable the State Department of Public Wel-
fare to discharge properly the duties imposed upon it, the said De-
partment may of its own motion, or by the direction of the Governor
shall cause charges to be formulated against any corporation, as-
sociation, institution or agency engaged in charitable or social wel-
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