Marvin Mandel, Governor                         625

§ 80A. Certified copies of records, etc., of Department of Tide-
water Fisheries admissible as originals.

A copy or photostat of any books, papers, entries, records or pro-
ceedings pertaining to the Department of Tidewater Fisheries, when
certified to by the Chairman of the Commission of Tidewater Fisheries
as being correct, shall be received as evidence in any court of law or
equity or before any judge, [justice of the peace,] or other tribunal
in this State, in the same manner and to have the same effect as if
the original books, papers, entries, records or proceedings were them-
selves produced.

Section 36. And be it further enacted, That Sections 15, 19, 35 and
56 of Article 35 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1971 Replace-
ment Volume), title "Evidence," subtitles "Attendance and Pay of
Witnesses," "COMMISSIONS TO TAKE EVIDENCE FROM
OTHER STATES," and "Proof of Accounts," be and they are
hereby repealed.

§ 15. Superintendent of Maryland Tuberculosis Sanitarium.

[No subpoena or summons in any civil cases shall be issued by
any board, bureau, commission or out of any court of record in this
State, or by any justice of the peace, requiring the personal at-
tendance as a witness of the superintendent of the Maryland Tuber-
culosis Sanitarium or any branch thereof to testify concerning the
health, history or any other factor pertaining to any individual who
may be, or may have been, a patient in any institution whereof the
said superintendent may have supervision, except in those cases in
which his personal testimony is absolutely essential to the issue, pro-
vided, however, that in any civil cases any transcript of the official
records of any such institution, duly certified by any such said super-
intendent, shall be competent evidence of the medical history of any
individual who heretofore has been, or hereafter may be, a patient
therein; and provided further that nothing contained in this section
shall be construed to limit or to abridge the right of any party to take
the testimony of any such said superintendent by deposition as other-
wise provided in this article.]

§ 56. Statement filed by plaintiff in action ex contractu; affidavit
of defense.

[In any action arising ex contractu, brought before any justice of
the peace of this State, if the plaintiff or his agent shall have filed, at
the time of bringing his action, an itemized statement of his account
and the original written contract, if any, between the parties, and an
affidavit setting out distinctly his cause of action, and the sum he
claims to be due, exclusive of all setoffs and just grounds of defense
and the defendant shall have been served with a copy of said state-
ment, contract and affidavit, and of the summons, the plaintiff shall
be entitled to a judgment for the amount so claimed, with interest
and costs, unless the defendant shall file, on or before six days next
succeeding the return day of the summons, or such additional time as
shall be fixed by said justice of the peace, an affidavit of defense,
denying the right of the plaintiff as to the whole or some specified part
of his claim, and specifically stating also, in precise and distinct
terms, the grounds of his defense, which must be such as would, if
true, be sufficient to defeat the plaintiff's claim in whole or in part;