TO:        All participants in the public hearing before the Commissioner of Land Patents concerning Warrant No. 100, to be held Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. in the Electronic Classroom, Edward C. Papenfuse State Archives Building, 350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

FROM:  Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, Commissioner of Land Patents

DATE:    March 12, 2012

RE:         Public Hearing Format and Commissioner's Questions

A hearing before the Commissioner of Land Patents is informal in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.   Its purpose is to determine to the satisfaction of the Commissioner whether or not the applicants have clearly established that the land for which a land patent is requested is truly patentable as defined by law.  To this end, the Commissioner begins each hearing with a series of questions that he hopes will be addressed in detail by the applicant in the course of the proceedings, or if need be, in writing later.  The questions are meant to provide a focus for the hearing and to be certain that no area of concern to the Commissioner in making his determination is overlooked.   The applicant should feel free to address any issue not covered by the Commissioner's questions at any time the Commissioner, with the advice of counsel, deems appropriate.

The Commissioner will begin the hearing with his questions, which include but are not limited to the questions listed below.   He will then give the applicant and his surveyor an opportunity to both respond to the questions and to begin their presentation.

In the matter of Warrant No. 100, the Commissioner will begin by asking the following questions:

1.  Land becomes eligible for patent in one of two ways: either because no patent has ever been issued that encompasses the allegedly vacant land, or because you hold fee simple title to the land, and under Title 13, Real Property Article, desire a patent.   Under which provision are the applicants applying for a patent?

2. The applicant and his surveyor will be asked to locate the alleged vacant land on a standard base map of the area.

3.  The applicant will be asked to describe the research done to establish his contention that the subject land in this application meets the statutory definition of vacant land, viz., land for which patent never has been issued.

4.  Are there any existing monuments on the ground, representing the beginning and end markers of survey lines?   If so, what survey lines are these and to what patents do they relate?

5.  The Commissioner will ask the surveyor why he ran the survey lines as shown on his survey and to present evidence on why he identified certain survey lines as patent lines.
For example, the third line of the survey is also identified as the 16th line of the patent for “Prospect,” patented in the year 1798.

6.  The surveyor identified the 8th or last line of his survey as the 17th or last line of a patent called Reeses Enlargement” surveyed in 1787 and patented in 1819.   The survey for “Reeses Enlargement” does not provide a metes and bounds description of that line but ends the survey with “thence by a straight line to the beginning…”   How can the surveyor be certain that they are the same line?

7.  What is the significance of LAND OFFICE (Certificates, Unpatented, HA) 370 “Partnership Dissolved,” 27.25 acres and 22 perches, surveyed for Israel Cox, 1804
[MSA S1222-376] and how does it relate to the alleged vacancy?