984 ARTICLE 4.

erties benefited thereby. Nothing herein shall prevent any property
owner from showing on appeal the amount he is actually benefited.
Patterson v. Balto., 130 Md. 654. P., B. & W. B. R. Co. v. Balto., 131 Md. 368.

1914, ch. 125.

175B. The first meeting of the Commissioners to execute any ordi-
nance to open, extend, widen, straighten or close, in whole or in part, any
street, square, lane or alley shall be held within three months after the
passage of such ordinance, unless within that time an ordinance shall be
introduced to repeal the same. It shall be the duty of said Commissioners
to proceed diligently thereafter in the further execution of such ordinance.
On or about the first day of January, in every year, the said Commission-
ers shall make a report to the Mayor, and transmit a copy thereof to the
City Council, showing the status of their proceedings under every such
ordinance which shall have been passed and shall not have been fully exe-
cuted. Instead of waiting until the benefits are collected, before paying
the damages and proceedings with said opening, extending, widening,
straightening or closing, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may,
in its discretion, in the annual Ordinance of Estimates, set aside a sum
from the general levy or from any other funds properly applicable there-
to, to be used, in the discretion of the said Commissioners, with the ap-
proval of the Board of Estimates, in paying the damages awarded in any
such proceeding in advance of the collection of the benefits assessed in
.said proceeding. In the event of such advance payments, the benefits
when collected shall be credited to the fund from which such payments
shall have been made. No such advance payment shall be made until
after the expiration of the time for taking appeals from the actions of
the said Commissioners, and the final termination of any appeal or other
proceeding in which the validity of the ordinance, or of the entire pro-
ceedings thereunder, shall be assailed.

1914, ch. 125.
175C. Upon any appeal from the action of the Commissioners for

Opening Streets in awarding damages or assessing benefits in the matter
of opening, widening, extending, straightening or closing any public high-
way, the return of the Commissioners for Opening Streets shall be prima
facie evidence of the correctness of the amounts of damages awarded and
benefits assessed, and the burden of proof shall be upon the party assert-
ing that any such award or assessment ought to be less or more than the
amount so fixed by the Commissioners for Opening Streets; this provi-
sion, so far as it relates to the burden of proof, shall not apply to an appeal
from benefits where no question of damages is involved.

Cahill v. M. & C. C., 129 Md. 22. Bonaparte v. Balto., 131 Md. 81.

1898, ch. 123. 1900, ch. 109.

176. In every case where it shall be necessary in order to effect the
object proposed under any of the ordinances providing for the laying out,