1014 ARTICLE 4.

APPROPRIATIONS.

Appropriations to aid institutions of a benevolent and charitable character not
created by municipal power conferred on the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore,
are unauthorized.

St. Mary's Industrial School v. Brown, 45 Md. 310.

Color Line. The state or a municipality may lawfully grant aid to a private
educational institution from which colored people are excluded.
Clark v. Maryland Institute. 87 Md. 643.

BALLOTS.

Appointment of Officers. When a municipality is empowered by charter to pro-
vide for the appointment of certain officers, and an ordinance provides that these
officers shall be chosen by ballot, then, according to the principles of the common
law, a blank ballot cannot be counted in estimating the total number of votes cast;
and the municipality has no power, to declare by resolution, or adopt by usage, as
a rule of procedure, that in the election of officers, a blank ballot shall be counted
as a vote.

Murdoch v. Strange, 99 Md. 104.

BUILDINGS.

Refusal of Permits. A municipal ordinance authorizing a permit for a new
building to be refused at the discretion of a municipal agency because a building
to be erected does not conform in general character to the other buildings in the
neighborhood of proposed building is void. The Charter power to regulate build-
ings in Baltimore City is limited to regulations guarding against dangers arising
from unsafe construction or from the use of inflammable materials, or some similar
exercise of the police power.

Bostock v. Sams, 95 Md. 400.

CITY COUNCIL.

City Council Committees. Rule laid down as to when the investigation of a City
Council Committee will not be interfered with.

Williams v. Smyrk, Daily Record, February 18, 1895.

Injunction. Court will not Interfere with exercise of legislative power.
Broening v. Haley, 156 Md. 605.

Province of the City Council in relation to power to pass ordinances.
Smyrk v. Sharp, 82 Md. 97.

Tax Rate. The City Council is not authorized to fix the tax rate before the re-
port of the Board of Estimates. Right of the City Council to change appropriation
proposed in the Ordinance of Estimates.

Baltimore City v. Gorter, 93 aid. 8.

CONTRACTS.

Contracts with the Municipality. The rights, powers and liabilities of a munici-
pality must be considered with reference to the subject-matter to which such con-
tracts relate, and the character in which the municipal body acts in making them.
But in respect to contracts made by them in the exercise of powers intrusted to
them in their municipal character, exclusively for public purposes, courts have no
power to review or control their acts, unless they transcend the limits of their
delegated powers.

Rittenhouse v. Mayor, 25 Md. 336.

Modification of Contracts. Power of the municipal corporation to modify a con-
tract authorized by the Legislature, discussed in—

Cumberland v. Wilson, 50 Md. 138.

Ultra Vires Contracts. When the contract is one which a municipal corporation
has no authority to make, and is one which will increase the burden of taxation,