LAND OFFICE 2283

bid and the fees for patent, in the same manner as an assignee of the
certificate would be entitled to a patent under the rules of the land office,
upon exhibition of the proof of assignment. This section to apply only
to those cases in which more than one year has elapsed since the date of
warrant, and nothing herein contained shall prevent any person from
obtaining a proclamation warrant on such certificate as fully as if this
section had not been enacted. If the amount involved does not justify in
proceeding as above, the commissioner, after giving at least two months'
notice in writing to the owner of the certificate of the amount due thereon
for fees and composition money, and the same is not paid within two
months after such notice, then such certificate may be vacated and annulled,
and the vacant land included in such certificate may be taken up by any
one in the same manner as other vacant land. If however, the said notice
is returned unserved by reason of the owner of the certificate not being
found by the sheriff of the county where the vacant land embraced in said
certificate is situated or where the owner resides, or is dead, or for any
other cause the said notice can not be served, the commissioner of the land
office may then give at least four weeks' notice in some newspaper printed
and published in the county where the land lies, that the examiner's fee
and composition money is not paid as provided in the notice aforesaid;
the land commissioner may, after the expiration of two months from the
date of the last publication of said notice, the examining fee and composition
money still remaining unpaid, vacate and annul such certificate, and the
land included in such certificate may be taken up by any one in the same
manner as other vacant land. And the costs of issuing any such notice,
service or advertisement, shall be paid by the owner of such certificate,
and if dead, be a preferred claim against the decedent's estate, if the said
estate, is not finally administered; and such costs shall be collected by the
sheriffs of the several counties and Baltimore City, as fees of the land
office are collected.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 36. 1912, sec. 37. 1904, sec. 37. 1888, sec. 34. 1781, ch. 20, sec. 8.

1861, ch. 3.

36. The person who first applies to the commissioner of the land
office for a warrant during business hours shall be entitled to the same
upon paying the usual fees and caution money.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 37. 1912, sec. 38. 1904, sec. 38. 1888, sec. 35. 1781, ch. 20, sec. 9.

37. The value of all escheat lands and the improvements thereon and
the real value of any improvements upon vacant land shall be returned
and certified to by the surveyor, on oath, at the time of returning his cer-
tificate of survey; and the commissioner of the land office shall finally
ascertain the value of such land and improvements, and receive the money
therefor from the party, but the omission by the surveyor to return such
valuation shall in no case be a cause of caveat.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 38. 1912, sec. 39. 1904, sec. 39. 1888, sec. 36. 1861, ch. 3. 1894, ch. 191.

38. Every certificate of survey shall be returned to the land office
within six months from the date of the warrant.

Time when certificate was returned is question for jury. Admissibility of evidence.
Steuart v. Mason, 3 H. & J. 507; Hammond v. Warfield, 2 H. & J. 151.

As to failure to return certificate in time as affecting priority of grant, see Hammond
v. Warfield, 2 H. & J. 151; Steuart v. Mason, 3 H. & J. 507.