REVENUE AND TAXES. 2577

tax roll, by the same officers; and that the petitioner is, or will be injured
by such alleged illegality, inequality or erroneous assessment or classi-
fication. The petition of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall set
forth wherein the decision of said Court is erroneous and such other facts as
may be necessary to inform the Baltimore City Court of the claim of the
city. A summons shall issue for the respondent or respondents named in
the petition of the city returnable on such a day as the Baltimore City
Court may appoint for a hearing of the matter averred in such petition.
All such appeals shall be taken within thirty days after an assessment, or
classification, has been made as aforesaid, or within thirty days after the
refusal to reduce or abate, modify, alter or change an existing assessment,
or classification, or within thirty days after the action of said Court com-
plained of by the city. On such appeals the Baltimore City Court shall
appoint a day for hearing said appeals, which shall not be less than five
nor more than thirty days after the expiration of the thirty days' limit
for taking appeals as aforesaid; and shall direct the clerk of the said
Baltimore City Court to issue a subpoena duces tecum to the judges of
said Appeal Tax Court, requiring them to produce and deliver to said
Baltimore City Court the record of the proceedings of the said Appeal Tax
Court, and all maps, plats, documents and other papers connected with
the said record; the said Baltimore City Court shall have full power to
hear and fully examine the subject and decide on said appeals, and for
that purpose it is hereby authorized and empowered to adjourn from time
to time, and may cause all or any of such appeals to be consolidated, or
may hear and decide them separately, and may require the said judges of
the Appeal Tax Court, their clerks, surveyors or other agents and ser-
vants, or any of them, and all such other persons as the Baltimore City
Court may deem necessary to attend, and examine them on oath or affirma-
tion; and may permit and require all such explanation, amendments and
additions to be made to and of the proceedings as the Court shall deem
requisite. The person or the city appealing to the said Baltimore City
Court shall have a trial before the Court without the intervention of a
jury, and the Court, sitting without a jury, shall hear the case de novo,
and shall ascertain and decide on the proper assessment, or classification,
of the property for the year involved in the appeal; and neither the action,
nor the record of the proceedings, of the judges of the Appeal Tax Court
in the premises shall be held to be, or declared void for any reason what-
soever; provided due notice of the proceedings shall have been given to
the parties entitled by said judges of the said Appeal Tax Court; and
the said Baltimore City Court shall assess anew, or classify anew, as the
case may be, the property forming the subject of the appeal; provided,
however, that in the absence of any affirmative evidence to the contrary,
the assessment or classification appealed from shall be affirmed. The said
City Court shall cause the proceedings and decisions on said appeals to
be entered in the book containing the record of proceedings of the said
Baltimore City Court, certified by the clerk under the seal of the Balti-
more City Court, and the book to be transmitted to the judges of the
said Appeal Tax Court, which shall be final and conclusive in every re-
83