4570 ARTICLE 21.

owner or owners thereof for the purchase, use, occupation or removal of
the same, and if they cannot agree, and if the owner or owners or any
of them be an infant feme covert, who is not possessed of the property to
her sole and separate use, or authorized to contract with reference to the
same, non compos mentis, or out of the town when such property may be
wanted, or for any cause be legally incapable of contracting, application
may be made by the Mayor to any justice of the peace of Talbot county,
who shall thereupon issue his warrant under his hand and seal to the
sheriff of the county, requiring him to summon a jury of twenty qualified
voters of said town above the age of twenty-one years, and qualified to act
as jurors under the laws of this State, not related to the parties nor in any
wise interested, to meet on the lands or near the material or property
wanted for the proposed improvement, on a day named in said warrants,
not less than ten nor more than twenty days after issuing the same, and
if at the same time and place any of the said jurors summoned do not
attend, the said sheriff shall immediately summon as many persons simi-
larly qualified as, together with those in attendance, shall make up twenty,
and from the panel each party, his, her, its or their agent or attorney, or
if either be not present in person or by agent, or being present in person
or by agent, refuse to strike, the said sheriff, for him, her or them may
strike off four persons, and the remaining twelve shall act as a jury of
inquest of damages; and to each, before he acts as juror, the said sheriff
shall administer an oath or affirmation that he will justly and impartially
alue the damage which the owner or owners will sustain by the use and
occupation of the property required by the Mayor and Council, and assess
the benefits to be derived by the owner thereof from the proposed improve-
ment, and the said jury shall reduce their inquisition to writing and sign
and seal the same, and it shall then be returned by the said sheriff to the
clerk of the Circuit Court for Talbot county, to be filed by said clerk in
his office, and shall be confirmed by said court if no sufficient cause to the
contrary be shown within thirty days after the time of filing the same,
and when confirmed shall be recorded by said clerk at the expense of the
Mayor and Council of Easton; but if the same be set aside, the said
Court shall direct another inquisition to be taken in the manner above
described, and in case the second or any other inquisition which is con-
firmed by the court shall not award to the owner a larger amount of dam-
ages than was awarded by the first inquisition, the court may, in its
discretion, order the costs of the second or other inquisition to be paid
by the owner or owners of said land or materials condemned; and the
inquisition shall in all cases describe the property taken or the bounds of
the lands condemned, and the quantity or duration of interest in the same
(and the valuation the jury have put upon it) and the valuation the jury
have put upon the benefit which the owner of the condemned land will
derive from the proposed improvement, and the valuation of the land less
the valuation of the benefits when paid or tendered to the owner or owners
of the property, his, her or their legal representatives shall entitle the
Mayor and Council of Easton to the estate and interest in the same thus
valued as if it had been legally conveyed by the owner or owners of the