OYSTERS. 2289

An. Code, sec. 96B. 1914, ch. 265, sec. 94B.

111. Three or more residents of this State may at any time before Jan-
uary 1, 1915, file a petition in writing, alleging that five or more adjacent
acres of natural beds or bars situated in the Chesapeake Bay outside
County waters, or one or more acres of natural beds or bars within the terri-
torial limits of any County of this State, to be described in said, petition
have been excluded from the surveys or resurveys of natural beds or bars
of this State, such petition to be attested by the several oaths of the peti-
tioners, and to be filed in the Circuit Court for the County in which or
nearest to which the area in question is located. Upon the filing of such
petition, the Clerk of the Circuit Court shall docket a suit at law in which
the petitioners are to be plaintiffs and the Shell Fish Commissioners and
lessees, if any, of such area are to be the defendants. The Court, or any
Judge thereof, shall thereupon pass an order directing summons to issue
for the defendants, to be served in the same manner as summons in actions
at law, and returned by some day to be named in said order. The defen-
dants shall answer said petition within fifteen days after the return day
to which they are summoned, unless the Court for good cause shown shall
extend the time for answering. After filing of such answer or in default
of answer within the time fixed, the Court shall proceed promptly to hear
all evidence adduced by the parties, or either of them; and shall decide
whether the area described in said petition is or is not a natural bed or
bar as defined in Section 98, and judgment shall be entered accordingly.
The hearing in said Circuit Court shall be before a jury, unless jury trial
be waived by all parties, in which event the hearing shall be before any
Judge or Judges of said Court, An appeal to the Court of Appeals of
Maryland may be taken by either party to said case from the judgment of
said Circuit Court within thirty days thereafter, and the Court of Appeals
shall have power to review all questions of fact or law involved. If the
final decision shall be that the area in question is a natural bed or bar,
amended plats shall be made and copies filed as provided in Section 110.
The parties filing the petition in the Circuit Court as herein provided
shall first file a bond with sufficient surety in the sum of $25, conditioned
to pay Court costs incurred in the event said petition is dismissed and
costs are imposed upon the petitioners; and the party or parties taking
the appeal to the Court of Appeals shall file a similar bond in such sum
as the lower Court may fix, conditioned to pay Court costs incurred in the
event the appeal to the Court of Appeals is dismissed and costs are im-
posed upon the appellant.

The contention that provisions of act of 1914, ch. 265, for ascertainment of outlines
of natural oyster bars by testimony in court, are so defective and contradictory
as to make act incapable of enforcement, overruled. The act of 1914 does not violate
the Fourteenth Amendment of Federal Constitution, or art. 23 of Declaration of
Rights. The portion of this section providing that court of appeals may review all
questions of fact or law, does not require that entire act be held invalid under art.
15, sec. 6, of Md. Constitution; term " fact" may be eliminated. Evidence. Shellfish
Commrs, v. Mansfield, 125 Md. 631.

See notes to sec. 98.

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