HARRY HUGHES, Governor

801

FOR the purpose of excluding Somerset County and Dorchester
Counties from provisions providing for compensation to
a person having any sheep, poultry, or livestock
destroyed or injured by a dog or dogs.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,

Article 56 - Licenses

Section 198

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1972 Replacement Volume and 1979 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
be repealed, amended, or enacted to read as follows:

Article 56 - Licenses

198.

(a) If any inhabitant of a county has any sheep,
poultry, or livestock destroyed or injured by a dog or dogs,
he may apply to the sheriff of the county, who shall appoint
three disinterested persons as appraisers to view and
appraise the damages by him sustained. At least one of the
appraisers shall be a deputy sheriff of the county, and
they, under oath, shall state in writing to the county
commissioners of 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. The appraisers and
the owner of the sheep, poultry or livestock shall make oath
that they believe the sheep, poultry or livestock to have
been destroyed or injured by a dog or dogs. (b) When the
report of the proceedings has been filed, the county
commissioners of the county shall review the report, and if
in their judgment the amount of damages stated is unfair,
they shall award an amount as they may deem fair. The award
shall be paid out of the fund hereby created. The sworn
report of the appraisers shall be deemed prima facie
evidence of the fairness of the award of damages in each
instance. The county commissioners shall not change an award
unless they have personal knowledge of its unfairness, or
shall receive competent testimony to the effect that the
award is in excess of a fair commercial valuation of the
sheep, poultry or livestock injured or destroyed by dogs.
(c) If the owner of the dog or dogs doing the damage be
known, it is the duty of the county commissioners to notify
the owner or owners to kill the dog or dogs immediately. If
the dog or dogs be killed by the owner, after notice as
aforesaid, he shall be exempt from all further liability. If
the owner or owners refuse or neglect to kill the dog or
dogs upon notice as aforesaid, the owner or owners shall be
liable to the county commissioners for the damages to the
same extent as he would be liable in case of negligence or