CITY OF CUMBERLAND. 301

ages allowed him, or benefits assessed against him, may appeal therefrom
at any time within thirty days after said commissioners shall have made
their return, to the Circuit Court for Allegany County, which said appeal
shall be token by filing written notice thereof with the Clerk of said City
Council, who shall thereupon without unnecessary delay, transmit to said
Circuit Court a record of the proceedings of said Mayor and City Council
and of said Street Commissioners in said matter, and said appeal to be
docketed upon the trial docket of the next succeeding term of said Cir-
cuit Court; the party taking said appeal to be docketed as plaintiff and
said Mayor and City Council as defendant, and said party appellant shall
thereupon be entitled to a jury trial, to assess the amount of damages
payable to or amount of benefits chargeable against him, as the case may
be, and the amount assessed as such damages or benefits by said jury shall
stand in the place and stead of the assessment thereof by said commis-
sioners, and upon said appeal it shall be competent for the Court to quash
the proceedings upon the motion of the appellant for errors or omissions,
rendering the same fatally defective; and upon the trial of said cause in
said Circuit Court, either party may take bills of exceptions to any rulings
of said Court upon matters of law arising in the progress 'of such trial,
and either party may appeal to' the Court of Appeals of this State1 from
any such rulings, or from the action of said Court in quashing or refusing
to quash such proceedings.

1922, ch. 96, sec. 76.

76. The Mayor and City Council may, whenever in their judgment
the public interests or convenience require it, have any street or alley, or
parts thereof, in said city graded, paved, sewered or otherwise improved,
and levy the whole expense thereof, or any portion thereof, not less than
two-thirds, on the property binding on such street or alley agreeably to the
extent of such lots thereon and collect the expense thereof as directed in
Section 79, and in case less than the whole cost is assessed upon the abut-
ting property the city shall pay the remainder thereof; provided that in
estimating the number of front feet upon such street or alley to be im-
proved, in all cases when a portion of such front feet shall be occupied by
a railroad track or its slopes, the number of front feet so occupied shall
not be included in said estimate, nor shall said railroad be assessed with
any part of the costs of such improvement, unless such property of said
railroad shall be used for other purposes than a track simply, in which
case said property shall be estimated and judged in the same manner as
the property of other parties bordering on said streets or alleys. Arid the
Mayor and City Council shall provide, by ordinance, for the giving of
notice by publication or by service or written notice personallv upon the
parties to be affected by said proceeding, and allowing them to be heard
before any such proceedings are had, but nothing in this section shall be
construed to prevent the Mayor and City Council from constructing any
sewer or sewers or system of sewers and paying for same out of the funds
of the city, not to prevent the said Mayor and City Council from con-