STATE ROADS 3283

make and enter into any and all contracts, agreements or stipulations
germane to the scope of its duties and powers under this Article; and
purchase all machines, machinery, tools, implements, appliances, supplies,
materials and working agencies whatsoever which it may deem necessary
for the full performance and completion of any of the powers conferred
and duties imposed upon said Commission, or which may be germane to
the same or to the purposes and objects of this Article, and where rights,
easements and franchises of the United Railways and Electric Company
of Baltimore,¹ its successors and assigns, exist upon any turnpike or private
right of way in the Annex which may be improved hereunder, then said
rights, easements and franchises may (if the Mayor and City Council of
Baltimore and said railways company, its successors and assigns fail to
agree upon terms of purchase or surrender) be condemned by the Mayor
and City Council of Baltimore under the provisions of Chapter 274 of
the Acts of 1904, and Chapter 566 of the Acts of 1906, or in the exercise
of its general powers of condemnation, the cost thereof to be defrayed out
of the loan provided for in said first mentioned Act, or out of the ordi-
nary proceeds of municipal taxation; provided, however, that the pro-
visions of said Act of 1906 shall be obligatory upon, and not discretionary
with, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and the Board of Esti-
mates, and the price to be charged for new rights, franchises and ease-
ments similar to those condemned, shall be the same as the amount of the
condemnation award.

Power of Commission to select route, secure property, etc. Decision of Commission
as to property needed not subject to judicial review; exception. Land-owners have
no right to interfere with construction of public road by the Commission unless it
affects some personal or property right. Murphy v. State Roads Commn., 159 Md. 7.

This section referred to in construing sec. 40. Dunne v. State, 162 Md. 274.

1929, ch. 125. 1931, ch. 539, sec. 4.

5. In all proceedings in which the State Roads Commission seeks to
obtain property by condemnation under Sections 206 to 212, inclusive,
or Sections 329 to 335, inclusive, of Article 23 of the Annotated Code of
Maryland, where any owner or owners is or are not known, it shall be
lawful to describe such owner or owners as the unknown owner or owners,
or the unknown heir or heirs of a deceased owner, and notice shall be given
to such unknown persons by publication as notice is provided for in the
case of non-residents in Section 207 of Article 23 of the Annotated Code of
Maryland; and when such notice is given by publication, it shall have the
same effect as if the said unknown owner or owners had personally appeared
and answered in the said condemnation proceedings.

An. Code, 1924, art. 91, sec. 29. 1912, art. 91, sec. 35. 1908, ch. 141, sec. 32C.

1931, ch: 539, sec. 5.

6. If the State Roads Commission shall determine that the public neces-
sity, or convenience, or that the purposes of this Article require that any
turnpike, or part thereof, whether maintained as such by any turnpike
company or otherwise, or whether formerly maintained as such and now
abandoned by any turnpike company, or that any public road in whole or
in part in any county or counties, and forming a section of a through
route or continuous thoroughfare between two or more important points
in the State, should be taken charge of by said commission for the State
for the purposes of this Article, then, as to such public road or abandoned

¹ Now the Baltimore Transit Company.