Mayor of Baltimore City v. German-American Fire Insurance

Citations

• 132 Md. 380

Syllabus

<p>Statutes: date for becoming effective. Repeals by implica- ■ tion. Tax exemptions: discretion of Legislature; mortgages held by domestic fire insurance companies; Chapter 197 of the Acts of 1914.</p> <p>Under section 31 of Article 3 of the Constitution, unless otherwise provided in the terms of a statute, an Act of the Legislature becomes effective on the 1st of June following its passage.</p> <p>Repeal of statutes by mere implication are never favored by the courts.</p> <p>It is only when there is a plain, unavoidable repugnancy between the statutes that a later Act is held to repeal a former one by implication.</p> <p>If a subsequent Act can be made, by any reasonable construction, to stand with previous legislation, that construction will always be adopted.</p> <p>This is especially true of Acts passed at one and the same session of the Legislature; in such cases there is a strong presumption against an implied repeal, and they are to be construed together, if possible, so as to give effect to each.</p> <p>References to the Code, in amending the laws, may be either to the Code of 1904, or to 1912, where the sections of the Code of 1904 are identical and unchanged in the Code of 1912.</p> <p>The wisdom of granting exemption from taxation is within the discretion of the Legislature, and is not subject to control of the courts; and is not in contravention either of the State or of the Federal Constitution when not amounting to an arbitrary discrimination.</p> <p>Chapter 197 of the Acts of 1914, providing for the exemption from taxes of domestic fire insurance companies upon mortgages that are held by them, is not in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution on the ground of being an unlawful discrimination; nor is it in violation of section 33 of Article 3 of the State Constitution, by which special laws are prohibited for any case for which provision has been made by any existing genera] law.</p>