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Agreement
with owners of
land, &c.
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Sec. 12. And be it enacted. That the Presi-
dent and Directors of said Company, or a majority
of them or their agents may agree with the owner
or owners of any land, earth, timber, gravel or
other materials or any improvements for the con-
struction or repairs of said road or its works, for
the purpose or use and occupation of the same, and
in case they cannot agree, or if the owner or owners
or any of them be a feme covert, under age, non
compos mentis, or out of the County in which the
property wanted may lie, when such lands or ma-
terials may be needed on application to a Justice
of the Peace of such County, he shall issue his
warrant under his hand and seal, directed to the
Sheriff of said County, requiring him to summon
a jury of twenty inhabitants of said county to meet
on the land to be valued on a day specified in said
warrant, not less than five, nor more than ten days
after issuing the same, and in case any of the Jurors
aforesaid, do not attend, the said Sheriff shall in-
stanter summon as many Jurors as may be neces-
sary with the Jurors in attendance to furnish a
panel of twenty Jurors in attendance, and from
them each party, his, her or their agents, and if
either be not present in person or by agent, the
Sheriff may strike off four Jurors for each of the
absent parties, and the remaining twelve shall act
as the jury of inquest of damages, and betore they
act as such, the said Sheriff shall administer to
each of them an oath or affirmation (as the case may
be) that he will justly and impartially value the
damages which the owner or owners of said land
will sustain by the use or occupation of the name
required by the Company, and the said Jury shall
reduce this inquisition to writing, and shall sign
and seal the same, and it shall then be returned
by said Sheriff to the Clerk of his County, and by
such Clerk filed in his Court, and shall be confirm-
ed by said Court at its next Session, if no sufficient
cause to the contrary be shown, and when con, |
