WM. PRESTON LANE, JR., GOVERNOR. 1549

file a protest in writing against such application in the
Circuit Court of the county in which or nearest to which,
the area applied for is located, and the Clerk of said Court
shall thereupon docket a suit at law in which the protest-
ants are the plaintiffs and the Department of Tidewater
Fisheries is the defendant. The Court, or any Judge
thereof, shall thereupon pass an Order directing sum-
mons to issue for the defendant, to be served in the same
manner as summons in action at law, and returned by
some day to be named in said Order. Said Court or Judge
shall also furnish the defendant with a copy of the peti-
tion and the defendant shall answer said peti-
tion within fifteen days after the return day to which it is
summoned, unless the Court, for good cause, has extended
time for answering it. After filing of said answer, or in
default of answer within the time fixed, the Court shall
proceed promptly to hear all evidence adduced by the
parties, or either of them, and shall decide whether the
area described in said petition is or is not within any of
the prohibited areas set forth in subsection (b) of this
section and for which a lease shall not be granted, and
judgment shall be entered accordingly. The hearing in
said Circuit Court shall be before a jury unless jury trial
be waived by all parties, in which event the hearing shall
be before any Judge or Judges of said Court. An appeal
to the Court of Appeals of Maryland may be taken by
either party to said cause from the judgment of said Cir-
cuit Court within thirty days thereafter, and the Court
of Appeals shall have the power to review all questions
of fact or law involved. If the final decision shall be
that the area in question is a natural oyster bar or bed,
Charts of the Oyster Survey of 1906 to 1912, on record
in the office of the Department of Tidewater Fisheries,
shall be amended accordingly. The parties filing petition
in the Circuit Court, as herein provided, shall first file a
bond, with sufficient surety, in the sum of Twenty-five
Dollars ($25.00), conditioned to pay Court costs incurred
in the event said petition is dismissed, and the costs are
imposed upon the petitioners; and the party or parties
taking the appeal to the Court of Appeals shall file a simi-
lar bond in such sum as the Lower Court may fix, condi-
tioned to pay Court costs incurred in the event the appeal
to the Court of Appeals is dismissed, and costs are im-
posed upon the appellant.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall
take effect June 1, 1947.

Approved April 25, 1947.