COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 1017

or culvert, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one
hundred dollars for each such offence, such fine to be paid to the owner of
or public body having control over said bridge or culvert; in addition to
which the owner or person in control of such vehicle shall be liable to the
owner or authorities in control of said bridge or culvert for all damages
which may be done the same by the violation of the regulation so pre-
scribed, and shall have no redress against the owner or authorities having
control over said bridge or culvert in the event of the breaking down or
giving away of the same and consequent injury to such vehicle. Any
owner of any such bridge or culvert, or public officer or board, or member
of such board, or employee or agent thereof, who shall cause any such sign-
board to be posted without the authority in writing from the chief engineer
of the Good Roads Commission as aforesaid shall be deemed guilty of mis-
demeanor, and upon conviction be fined not less than twenty-five dollars
nor more than one hundred dollars. In any trial of any person charged
with a violation of any of the provisions of this section oral proof of the
existence of such signboard posted as herein provided, and its contents,
shall be accepted as prima, facie evidence of the validity of the regulation
thereon prescribed.

Draining Lands.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 38. 1912, sec. 36. 1904, sec. 35. 1888, sec. 35. 1858, ch. 271, sec. 1

1878, ch. 478.

39. Whenever the owner or owners of any swamp or low grounds shall

deem it fit to have them drained, if the owners of said lands cannot agree,
or should any be married women, infants, non compotes mentis, or non-
residents of the county or counties where the swamp or low lands are situ-
ated, they, or any of them may petition the county commissioners, sitting
in the county where such swamp or low lands or any part thereof are situ-
ated, for the appointment of commissioners to locate or lay out a ditch or
ditches for the purpose; and when such swamp or low lands are situated
in two or more adjoining counties, the county commissioners of the county
to which application shall first be made as aforesaid by petition shall have
exclusive jurisdiction of the subject-matter, who shall thereupon appoint a
board of three or more commissioners to be composed of judicious and im-
partial freeholders, to be taken from the neighborhood or vicinity of said
swamp or low lands, one of whom at least shall be taken from each of said
adjoining counties where the swamp or low lands lie or are situated in two
or more adjoining counties.

Cited but not construed in Miles v. Stevenson, 80 Md. 367.

See notes to sec. 22.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 39. 1912, sec. 37. 1904, sec. 36. 1888, sec. 36. 1858, ch. 271, sec. 2.

40. The commissioners so appointed, being first duly sworn to execute
their duties faithfully and impartially, shall call to their assistance a
skillful surveyor, sworn in like manner, and shall go upon and view the
swamps or low grounds mentioned in the petition, and lay out, by specified
courses and distances, breadths and depths, such ditch or ditches as shall be
sufficient to drain the said swamps or low grounds.

See notes to sec. 22.