Marvin Mandel, Governor                           879

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Section 198 of Article 56 of the Annotated Code of Maryland
(1972 Replacement Volume), title "Licenses," subtitle "Dog Licenses
in the Counties," be and it is hereby repealed and re-enacted, with
amendments, to read as follows:

198.

(a) [When] If any inhabitant of [any] a county [shall
have] has any sheep, poultry, or livestock destroyed or injured by
a dog or dogs, he may apply to any [trial magistrate] District Court
Judge SHERIFF of [said] the county, who shall appoint three disin-
terested persons as appraisers to view and appraise the damages
by him sustained. [, at] At least one of [said] the appraisers
shall be a deputy sheriff of [said] the county, and they, under
oath, shall state in writing to the county commissioners of [said]
the county, the number of sheep, poultry, or livestock killed, the
character and extent of the injury, if any done, and the amount
of the damages, upon which they shall all agree, sustained by the
owner. [; and both the] The appraisers and the owner of the sheep,
poultry or livestock shall make oath that they believe the [same]
sheep, poultry or livestock to have been destroyed or injured by
a dog or dogs. [, and] [when] (b) When the report of [such]
the proceedings has been filed, the county commissioners of [said]
the county shall review [said] the report, and if in their judgment
the amount of damages stated is unfair, they shall award [such]
an amount as they may deem fair. [; which] The award shall be
paid out of the fund hereby created [; provided, however, that
the said],. The sworn report of the appraisers shall be deemed
prima facie evidence of the fairness of the award of damages in
each instance [; and provided further, that the]. The county com-
missioners shall not change [such] an award unless they [shall]
have personal knowledge of its unfairness, or shall receive competent
testimony to the effect that the award is in excess of a fair commer-
cial valuation of the sheep, poultry or livestock injured or destroyed
by dogs. [And if] (c) If the owner of the dog or dogs doing the
damage be known, it [shall be] is the duty of the county commis-
sioners to notify [such] the owner or owners to kill [said] the
dog or dogs immediately. If [such] the dog or dogs be killed by
the owner, after notice as aforesaid, he shall be exempt from all
further liability [, but in case]. If the [said] owner or owners
[shall] refuse or neglect to kill [said] the dog or dogs upon notice
as aforesaid, the [said] owner or owners shall be liable to the
county commissioners for [said] the damages to the same extent
as he would be liable in case of negligence or malicious destruction
of property [, and the said]. The county commissioners may in
their discretion have the special officers or constables to kill [said]
the dog or dogs, (d) In Montgomery County, the County Council
shall prescribe by law the manner in which the powers, duties and
responsibilities placed within its jurisdiction and control by this
section shall be exercised, (e) In Washington County no payments
shall be made under this section unless the occurrence is reported
to [the] [justice of the peace] a District Court Judge, Sheriff
or any Deputy Sheriff., in order to have appraisers appointed, within
48 hours of the damage complained of, and unless [such] the apprais-
ers file their report with the County Commissioners of Washington
County within 15 days after their appointment. (f) In Frederick