1448                             Laws of Maryland                       Ch. 534

on the behalf and in the name of the defendant, and take recourse
to any appropriate method of review on behalf of, and in the
name of, the defendant.

(b) If the time allowed for filing an answer has expired or
judgment has been entered by default in the action, the insurer to
which the action has been assigned shall be granted a reasonable
time after the receipt of notice by the Board to answer or to make
application for relief against the judgment and leave to answer and
defend the action.

§ 7-618. Collusive judgments.

No claim against the fund shall be allowed in any case in which
the court finds, upon the hearing for the allowance of the claim,
that the judgment upon which the claim is founded was obtained
by fraud, or by collusion of the plaintiff and of any defendant in
the action, relating to any matter affecting the cause of action upon
which the judgment is founded or the amount of damages assessed
therein.

§ 7-619. Assignments of judgments to Board.

(a)    The Treasurer shall not pay any sum from the fund, in
compliance with an order made for that purpose, in any case in
which the claim is founded upon a judgment, except a judgment
obtained against the Board under this part, until the applicant as-
signs the judgment to the Board, and, thereupon, the Board shall
be deemed to have all the rights of the judgment creditor under
the judgment and entitled to enforce the same for the full amount
thereof with interest and costs, and if more money is collected upon
any such judgment than the amount paid out of the fund, the Board
shall pay the balance, after reimbursing the fund, to the judgment
creditor.

(b)    No assignment of judgment under this part shall be deemed
invalid because assigned to the Commissioner rather than to the
Board; nor shall any application, action, or judgment under Sections
7-620 to 7-627, inclusive, be deemed invalid because directed to, in-
stituted against, or recovered from the Commissioner rather than
the Board; but in every such instance the Board shall be deemed
to be substituted in place of the Commissioner wherever reference
is made to the latter in the assignment, application, or judgment.

§ 7-620. "Hit-and-run" cases.

When the death of, or personal injury to, any person arises out of
the ownership, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle in this State on
or after June 1, 1959, but the identity of the motor vehicle and of the
operator and owner thereof cannot be ascertained or it is established
that the motor vehicle at the time the accident occurred, was in the
possession of some person other than the owner without the owner's
consent and that the identity of the person cannot be ascertained,
any qualified person who would have a cause of action against the
operator or owner, or both, in respect to the death or personal injury
for a sum in excess of one hundred dollars ($100.00), exclusive of
interests and costs, or the personal representative of such person,
may, upon serving notice on the Board in compliance with the Mary-