ART. 23] WATER COMPANIES——CONDEMNATION. 707

This section referred to in construing section 399, et seq.—see note thereto.
Moores v. Bel Air Water Co., 79 Md. 393.

For the regulations concerning water companies prescribed in the act cre-
ating the public service commission, see sec. 456.

1904, art. 23, sec. 359. 1888, art. 23, sec. 247. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 95.

398. If any corporation formed for the purposes mentioned in the
pieceding section can not agree with the owner or owners of any land
or water rights which such corporation may have power to acquire for
the purpose of laying pipes or constructing its works; or if such owner
or owners, or any of them, be a feme covert without power to contract
in relation to said property, or under age, or non compos mentis, or
under any other legal disability, or be absent from the county or city
in which the said property may lie when the said land or water rights
may be needed, the corporation may proceed to condemn and acquire
the same in the manner provided for in sections 399 to 404, both inclu-
sive, of this article.

This section referred to in construing section 399, et seq.—see note thereto.
Moores v. Bel Air Water Co., 79 Md. 394.

See sections 126, 250, 269, 389, 399, et seq.

Condemnation of Property by Corporations.

Ibid. sec. 360. 1888, art. 23, sec. 248. 1868, ch. 471, sec. 170.

399. If any corporation incorporated under the laws of this State
which shall be authorized to acquire by condemnation any land, earth
or stone, or any interest therein, can not agree with the owner or
owners thereof, or if any of such owners be a feme sole, and without
power to contract in that regard, under age, non compos mentis, or
under any other legal disability to contract, or be out of the county in
which the property wanted may lie at the time the same is wanted,
then in all such cases application may be made by any such corpora-
tion to any judge of the circuit court for the county in which said land
or other materials may lie, or to any judge of the supreme bench of
Baltimore city, if the said land or materials lie in the city of Balti-
more; and thereupon the said judge, upon its being made to appear
satisfactorily to him that said land or materials are necessary and
proper to be condemned for the use of such corporation, shall issue
his warrant, directed to the sheriff of said county or city, as the case
may be, requiring him to summon a jury of twenty inhabitants of said
county or city, as the case may be, not related to said owner, or in
anywise interested in said land, and not stockholders in said corpora-
tion, to meet on the land or near the other property or materials to be
valued and condemned, on a day named in said warrant, not less than
ten, nor more than twenty days after issuing the same.

The objection that the warrant to the sheriff to condemn land for the con-
struction of a railroad by a mining company, instead of merely complying
with the requirements of this section, directed the summons as Jurors of
inhabitants "above the age of twenty-one years and qualified to act as jurors
under the laws of this state" as required by section 269 relative to con-
demnations by railroad companies, should be made by a challenge to the