ART. 1. ] CUMBERLAND. 33

commissioners shall have made their return, to the circuit court
for Allegany county, which said appeal shall be taken by filing
written notice thereof with the clerk of said city council, who
shall thereupon, without unnecessary delay, transmit to said cir-
cuit court a record of the proceedings of said mayor and city
council, and of said street commissioners, in said matter, and said
appeal shall be docketed upon the trial docket of the next suc-
ceeding term of said circuit court, the party taking said appeal
to be docketed as plaintiff, and said mayor and city council as
defendant; and said party appellant shall thereupon be entitled
to a jury trial to assess the amount of damages payable to or
amount of benefits chargeable against him, as the case may be;
and the amount assessed as such damages or benefits by said jury
shall stand in the place and stead of the assessment thereof by
said commissioners; and upon said appeal it shall be competent
for the court to quash the proceedings upon the motion of the
appellant, for errors or omissions rendering the same fatally defec-
tive; and upon the trial of said cause in said circuit court, either
party may take bills of exception to any rulings of said court
upon matters of law arising in the progress of such trial, and
either party may appeal to the court of appeals of this State from
any such rulings, or from the action of said court in quashing or
refusing to quash such proceedings.

1878, ch. 484.

68. The mayor and city council, when requested in writing
by the owners of a majority of the front feet of the property on
any street or alley or parts thereof in said city, may cause the
same to be graded, paved, sewered or otherwise improved, and
levy the expenses thereof on the property binding on such street
or alley agreeably to the extent of such lots thereon, and collect
the expense thereof of grading, paving, sewering or otherwise
improving the same, as directed in the next succeeding section j
provided, that in estimating the number of front feet upon such
street or alley to be improved, in all cases when a portion of such,
front feet shall be occupied by a railroad track or its slopes, the
number of front feet so occupied shall not be included in said
estimate, nor shall said railroad be assessed with any part of the
cost of such improvements, unless such property of said railroad
3