382 CHANCEEY. [ART. 16

burial purposes, and lots have been sold therein, and deeds executed or

certificates issued to purchasers thereof, and it shall be considered desir-
able to dispose of said burial ground for other purposes, upon a bill
being filed in any of the circuit courts of the State, in equity, in the

city or county in which said burial ground is situated, setting forth the
aforegoing facts, and containing the names of the lot owners or their
assignees so far as known, the court shall order notice by publication
in one or more newspapers published in the county or city where such
burial ground is situated, warning all the lot holders or other persons
in interest, residents or non-residents, adults or infants, to appear in
court on or before the day fixed in said notice, to show cause why the
relief prayed for should not be granted; and said notice shall be such
as the court may direct, not less, however, than once a week for four
successive weeks two months before the day fixed by such order for
the appearance of the parties; and upon a failure of appearance by any
of said lot owners, or any party in interest by the time limited in said
notice, the court may order testimony to be taken ex parte, according
to the usual course in equity in cases of default for non-appearance;
and upon testimony taken in the cause ex parte, or otherwise, if it is
made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that it is expedient or
would be to the interest and advantage of the parties concerned that the
said burial ground should be sold, the court may forthwith pass a decree
for the sale of said ground upon such terms and notice as it shall deem
proper, and shall distribute the proceeds of sale among the parties inter-
ested according to their several interests, as the same shall be shown to
the court; and before making said distribution the court may order and
direct that so much and such part of said proceeds of sale, as shall
be necessary for the purpose, shall be set aside and applied to the
removal and burial of any dead that may lie in said burial ground, in
the purchase of a lot in any cemetery, graveyard, or other appropriate
place of sepulture, and in the expense of disinterment and re-interment
of said dead; and any decree passed in a proceeding for a sale of a
burial ground, as hereinbefore provided for, shall be valid to pass to
the purchaser or purchasers of said burial ground the title of the same
free, clear and discharged of, and from the claims of the corporation
or trustees who may hold the same, their successors or assigns, and of
all persons in interest as lot holders in such ground, whether they are
entitled as original lot holders, and whether they be residents or non-
residents, adults or infants.

Where certificates for lots in a cemetery are merely signed by the secretary
but not sealed, acknowleged or recorded, and the owners of the cemetery
sell it, the certificate holders, although they are not reimbursed for the money
paid for their certificates, have no claim against the purchaser. Such sale
need not be conducted under this section. Rayner v. Nugent, 60 Md. 520;
Partridge v. First Church, 39 Md. 631. (See, however, article 23, section 147.)

Where the leasehold interest in a lot is sold under this section, the pur-
chasers acquire said interest, and also the interest of the lot holders, though
they may be non-residents or infants. Brendel v. Zion Church. 71 Md. 85.

This section held to enlarge the corporate powers of the Archbishop of
Baltimore under the act of 1832. ch. 308. and to remove the restrictions of