1800 REVENUE AND TAXES. [ART. 81

Appeals.

1896, ch. 322. 1898, ch. 123, sec. 170.

17. Any person or persons or corporation claiming to be
aggrieved because of any assessment made by the appeal tax
court of Baltimore city, or because of the failure to reduce or
abate an existing assessment, may, by petition, appeal to the
Baltimore city court to review an assessment of real or personal
property, for the purpose of taxation made in Baltimore city,
when the petition shall set forth that the assessment is illegal,
specifying the grounds of the alleged illegality, or is erroneous
by reason of over valuation or is unequal in that the assess-
ment has been made by a higher proportion of valuation than
other real or personal property on the same roll by the same
officers and that the petitioner is or will be injured by such
alleged illegality, unequal or erroneous assessment; which
appeal shall be taken within thirty days after an assessment
has been made as aforesaid, or within thirty days after the
refusal to reduce or abate an existing assessment, and on such
appeal, the court may and shall appoint a day for hearing said
appeal, which shall not be less than five nor more than thirty
days after the expiration of the thirty days' limit for taking
appeals as aforesaid; and shall direct the clerk of the said
court to issue a subpoena duces tecum to the judges of the
appeal tax court of Baltimore city, requiring them to produce
and deliver to said court the record of the proceedings of the
appeal tax court of Baltimore city, and all maps, plats, docu-
ments and other papers connected with such record; and the
said court shall have full power to hear and fully examine the
subject and decide on said appeal and for that purpose it is
hereby authorized and empowered to adjourn from time to
time, and may cause all such appeals to be consolidated, or
may hear and decide them separately, and may require the
said judges of the appeal tax court of Baltimore city, their
clerks, surveyors or other agents and servants, or any of them,
and all such other persons as the court may deem necessary to
attend, and examine them on oath or affirmation; and may
permit and require all such explanations, amendments and
additions to be made to and of the proceedings, as the court
shall deem requisite; and the person appealing to the Balti-
more city court shall have a trial before the court without the
intervention of a jury, and the court sitting without a jury
shall ascertain or decide on the proper assessment and shall
not reject or set aside the record of the proceedings of the