584 ARTICLE 16

time limited in said notice, the court may order testimony to be taken
ex parte, according to the usual course in equity in cases of default for non-
appearance ; and upon testimony taken in the cause ex parte, or otherwise.
if it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that it is expedient
or would be to the interest and advantage of the parties concerned that the
said burial ground should be sold, the court may forthwith pass a decree
for the sale of said ground upon such terms and notice as it shall deem
proper, and shall distribute the proceeds of sale among the parties interested
according to their several interests, as the same shall be shown to the court;
and before making said distribution the court may order and direct that so
much and such part of said proceeds of sale, as shall be necessary for the
purpose, shall be set aside and applied to the removal and burial of any dead
that may lie in said burial ground, in the purchase of a lot in any cemetery,
graveyard, or other appropriate place of sepulture, and in the expense of
disinterment and re-interment of said dead; and any decree passed in a
proceeding for a sale of a burial ground, as hereinbefore provided for, shall
lie valid to pass to the purchaser or purchasers of said burial ground the
title of the same free, clear and discharged of, and from the claims of the
corporation or trustees who may hold the same, their successors or assigns,
and of all persons in interest as lot holders in such ground, whether they are
entitled as original lot holders, and whether they be residents or non-resi-
dents, adults or infants.

Where certificates for lots in a cemetery are merely signed by the secretary but not
sealed, acknowledged or recorded, and the owners of the cemetery sell it. the certificate
holders, although they are not reimbursed for the money paid for their certificates, have
no claim against the purchaser. Such sale need not be conducted under this section.
Rayner v. Nugent, 60 Md. 520; Partridge v. First Church, 39 Md. 631. (See, however,
art. 23, sec. 177.)

Where the leasehold interest in a lot is sold under this section, the purchasers ac-
quire said interest, and also the interest of the lot holders though they may be non-
residents or infants. Brendel v. Zion Church, 71 Md. 85.

This section held to enlarge the corporate powers of the archbishop of Baltimore
under the act of 1832, ch. 308, and to remove the restrictions of that act to effect that
land should be used only as a burial ground; so that a purchaser under this section got
a clear title. Gump v. Sibley, 79 Md. 171.

Where a cemetery is sold under the act of 1868, ch. 211, the lot holder is not entitled
to compensate out of the proceeds of the sale for improvements or erections upon his lot;
the most that he could claim would be to recover back the price he paid for the license.
The lot owners' right of removal. Partridge v. First Church, 39 Md. 636.

Proof held not sufficient to justify a decree of sale under the act of 1868, ch. 211.
Reed v. Stouffer, 56 Md. 251.

Cited but not construed in Nicolai v. Baltimore, 100 Md. 587.

As to cemetery companies, see art. 23, sec. 174, et seq.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 111. 1912, sec. 108. 1904, sec. 104. 1888, sec. 93. 1886, ch. 151.

116. In cases where proceedings have been or shall be instituted for
the renewal of a lease containing a covenant for renewal, the court may
pass a decree for the renewal of such lease, which shall be binding upon all
persons who shall have become parties to such proceedings by summons or
appearance, or who shall have been proceeded against by publication, as pro-
vided by section 142 of this article; and such decree shall be sufficient to
renew the title of all persons interested under such lease, according to their
respective interests and estates thereunder, for such additional term, under
such rent and upon such covenants, conditions and stipulations as were
provided in such lease.

As to unknown defendants to a bill for the renewal of a lease, see sec. 150.

See notes to sec. 103.

See art. 21, sec. 112.