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CHAP. 187
Method of ascer-
tainirtg value and
securing payment
for materials
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SEC. 15. And be it enacted, That the president and directory
of said company, or a majority of them, or any person or
persons authorised by a majority of them, may agree with the
owner or owners of any land, earth timber, gravel or stone, or
other materials, or any improvements which may be wanted
for the construction or repair of any of said roads or any of
their works, for the purchase or use and occupation of the
same and if they cannot agree, or if the owner or owners of
any of them, be feme covert, under age, non compos mentis, or
out of the county in which the property wanted may lie, when
such land and material may be wanted, application may be
made to any justice of the peace of such county, who shall
thereupon issue his warrant under hand and seal, directed to
the sheriff of said county, requiting him to summon a jury of
twenty inhabitants of said county, not related nor in any wise
interested, to meet on the land, or near to the other property
or materials to be valued, on a day named in said warrant, not
less than ten or more than twenty days after the issuing of
the same, and if at said time and place, an} of said jurors
summoned do not attend, the said sheriff shall immediately
summon as many jurors as may be necessary, with the jurors
in attendance, to furnish a pannel of twenty jurors in attend-
ance, and from them, each party, or its, his, her or their agent,
if either be not present in person or by agent, the sheriff for
him, her, it or them, may strike off foui jurors, and the re-
maining twelve shall act as the jury of inquest of damages;
and before they act as such, the said sheriff shall administer to
each of them an oath or affirmation, as the case may be, that he
will justly and impartially value the damages which the ow-
ner or owners will sustain by the use or occupation of the
same, required by the company; and the jury in estimating
such damages, shall take into the estimate the benefits result-
ing to the said owner or owners from conducting such rail
road through, along, or near to the property of said owner or
owners, but only ia the extinguishment of the claim for da-
mages; and the said jury shall reduce their inquisition to wri-
ting, and shall sign and seal the same, and it shall then be re-
turned by the said sheriff to the clerk or prothonotary of his-
county, as the case may be, and by such clerk or prothonotary
filed in his court, and shall be confirmed by the said court at
its ntxt session, if no sufficient cause to the contrary be shewn;
and when confirmed shall be recorded by the said clerk or
prothonotary at the expense of said company; but if set aside
the said court may direct another inquisition to be taken in the
mannet ahove prescribed, ami such inquisition shall describe,
the property taken, or the bound of the land condemned, and
the quantity of duration of the interest in the same valued for
the company, and such valuation when paid or tendered to the
owmer or owners of said property, or his, her or, their legal
representatives shall entitle the said company to the estate and
interest in the same, thus valued,as fully as if it had been con-
veyed by the owner or owners of the same, and the valuation
if not received when tendered, may at any time thereafter be
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